


We Meet Again

by cophinebrohaus



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-27
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 23:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2207133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cophinebrohaus/pseuds/cophinebrohaus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Delphine was one of the most popular girls in High School, she was part of the elite group of bitches that practically ran the place.  Young Cosima Niehaus was roped into doing all their science assignments, she was one of the nerds that the girls used in order to graduate.</p>
<p>After standing up to the head bitch, Cosima was publicly humiliated in the worst way possible - she was outed.  One of her best friends let it out to the bitches that she had a crush on the french cheerleader, Delphine. Cosima couldn’t take the laughter so she found herself a guy to beard with.  It worked, she was left alone.  </p>
<p>Delphine and her never spoke again, that is until Cosima bumps into her on her first day at the new university she is attending.  It turns out, both girls have completely grown up, they’re utterly different from their high school days so does this mean the game’s changed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One.

A smooth palm ran across her chest, slowly moving itself down towards her toned stomach.  Her hand gripped the bed sheets so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“Cosima.” That French accent burned her ears but she couldn’t help but want to listen to it over and over again. “Cosima.” That French accent disappeared and turned into the yell of a very angry Mrs Niehaus who was going to be late for work if her daughter didn’t get her ass up out of bed.

“I’m coming mom!” A little flushed, Cosima almost fell out of her double bed which she always thought was quiet unnecessary, but with her father insisting she would need it for ‘room to grow’, she never really argued.  Leaning against the doorframe of her wardrobe she regained composure after that, to say the least, very vivid dream.  She could feel the sweat dripping from her hair line.  Grabbing a pair of faded blue jeans and a t-shirt that was far too big for her, she headed for the bathroom to wash off the results of her imagination.  

The whole ride to school was awkward, Cosima’s mom gave her the silent treatment for the twenty minutes they spent together that morning – obviously pissed about the extra ten minutes she had to wait as her daughter readied herself.  But Cosima couldn’t apologise, “Sorry mom, I was having an amazing dream about the French girl from AP biology.” That would just make things even more unbearable and frankly, the silence was much needed.  It meant both could concentrate on their schedules for the day.  Mrs Niehaus was thinking about her latest test results from a ‘top secret’ project she was working on with her husband. Cosima was thinking how she was going to break the news to Lucia that she didn’t have time to finish the science assignment that the bitch practically forced her to do for her. 

That’s how the school ran.  There were four elite girls, four elite boys.  The rest of the school had to follow their rules and demands or face the backing boys.  The backing boys were the group of thirty/thirty five boys and girls, some football players, some cheerleaders.  If you didn’t do your job, well.  You were fucked.  Lucia Fox was the ‘queen of the school’ as she’d like to call herself, surrounded by Brandy Monroe (which isn’t her last name, she thought it was ‘original), Lily Carroll who basically knew her own name and that was about all the knowledge she could retain and finally, Delphine Cormier.  Delphine was strange, not so much character-wise but placement wise.  She never once used any of the “homework nerds” to help her education.  In fact, her test-scores almost tied with Cosima’s in their AP biology class.  It was rumoured that the only reason she ran with the elite was because of the fact she was dating Cooper James.

Cooper James aka the biggest douche that has ever dirtied the earth.

Everyone in school knew that he had been sleeping with Lucia for the majority of his and Delphine’s relationship but no one was brave enough to tell her.  To be honest, she probably knew but was just too comfortable with her high-school life to make a big deal out of it.

The cold sound of the morning bell ran through the steel speakers all around the school and in seconds the corridors were ghostly empty.  Cosima was running late, as per usual, for her first class.  She had just turned the corner after dodging a water-fountain before almost crashing into a mass of pink in front of her. 

“Jesus, watch it!” The valley girl voice caused Cosima’s heart to skip twice.  ‘Shit.’ She thought, Lucia.

“Sorry, I-I’m late for class.  I really need to get go-“Cosima tried to avoid what was inevitable to come next.  She edged herself around the girl but was pulled back before she could say goodbye.

“I’m in chemistry now...” Lucia’s voice was dragging as she held out her hand, waiting for the papers to be laid neatly on her palm.  When nothing appeared, she starred at the messy haired girl who was shaking like a leaf in front of her.  “Well?”

“I didn’t get time to- I mean I had a family thing last night and I couldn’t get it done in time and my-“The more Cosima tried to explain the higher her voice got.  Her face was beetroot red. The shower she took this morning turned out pointless as the sweat she got rid of slowly creeped back down her forehead.

She was cut off by the commanding hand from the bitch in front of her.  “We’ll talk about this at lunch.”

“No! We won’t.” The words flooded out of Cosima’s mouth before she had anytime to build a dam.  What the fuck did she just say?  Lucia’s face went from initial shock to disbelief.  Cosima was internally bleeding fear but she wanted to stick to her words.  This was the first time she had stood up to any of the elite, never mind queen B.  Pumping her chest out, she crossed her arms across it and waited for a response to her foolish bravery.

“Alright, we won’t.”  Lucia’s back was turned and she strolled down the corridor to her classroom.  Her laughter bounced off the concrete walls and straight back into Cosima’s face which caused it to drop from its original proud expression to one that was on the verge of tears. 

Entering biology, all eyes were on her.  Cosima never lifted her head for the entire class, for the entire morning.  She stalked the corridors only wishing that something would eat her up before she exploded.  Nerves consumed her completely and she could barely function properly.  Alexis, her chemistry lab partner, tried to speak to her but Cosima couldn’t form words to reply with.  It seemed rude but she couldn’t help it, all she could do was sit and wait in anticipation for her fate to come and flush her thick mat of brown hair and acne covered face down the STD infested, public school toilets.

The dreaded moment finally came.  The lunch bell.

Cosima thought about her options.  She could hide in the school’s chapel; I mean who would look for her there? Then again, she would have to walk through the cafeteria to get there.  If she hurried now, she could grab something to eat before the elite could make their way to torture her.  She was wrong.

There, at the centre of the large room, were eight seniors who all turned at the exact same time to lock eyes with Cosima.  Before she had time to sprint out of there, Brandy stood on top of the table that the group were eating at.  Behind her, she could hear the clunk of the metal doors shutting. She had no idea what was to come, not even her worst nightmares could predict Brandy’s next words.

“Excuse me everyone,” The hall was silenced in three words. “I’m going to keep this nice and short but I would just like to inform you all that Delphine is not gay.” Heads turned and whispers began to build to confused laughter. Even Delphine was looking confused at this point.  “Some of you may have thought differently,” Brandy’s eyes found those of Cosima’s and a smug smile drove a stake right into Cosima’s heart, “But Cosima Niehaus’ lesbian obsession with her has only repulsed Delphine more than anything. Thank you!” The tall, red haired girl, jumped back down into her seat and the whole cafeteria was silent for a few seconds.

That was until a shrill laugh shot out from Lucia’s mouth and it wasn’t long before that painful noise was joined by hundreds more. 

Cosima couldn’t breathe.  Her chest wasn’t moving, she was sure she was taking a heart-attack right there and then.  She used the last bit of energy she had to push the metal doors open and stumble into the old girls bathrooms.  They were on lock down but she ripped down the warning tape that covered the entrance.  Sliding down the broken tiled wall, she sat on a pile of rubble and tried to regain a healthy breathing pattern but it didn’t come.  She began to cough and she couldn’t stop, her head became light and then bam, lights out.

 

When Cosima came back around into reality, cold harsh lights caused her to squint her eyes.  A coldness surrounded her which resurrected goose bumps on her arms.  She could taste the dust from the bathroom in her mouth and it made her stomach churn.  The event in the cafeteria came back to her and she couldn’t help herself but to turn on her left side and hurl all the embarrassment up.

“Shit, here.” A rough hand gently moved the hair from her face to the back of her neck and placed a mop bucket under her chin.  After puking for five or ten minutes, Cosima rolled back and tried to sit up but a devastating headache wouldn’t allow it.  When she finally got control over her brain, she tried her best to make out the slim figure in front of her. 

“Where’s my glasses?” Her voice was breathy and the words sounded gruff.  A pair of large black rims where placed in her grip and she pushed them onto her face.  With a better view of the world, she attempted once more to get up off the yoga mat that she was lying on.

“Hey.” An acne faced boy tried out his most sympathetic smile he could to try and console Cosima.

“Scott?” She recognised him from her calculus class. He was wearing one of his typical grandpa sweaters that was a little right around the waist and his messy hair fell all over his face trying to hide the spots that hid underneath it.

“I someone coughing in the bathroom, what happened? Are you okay?” He was genuinely concerned and Cosima couldn’t help but smile.  She knew the little dorky kid from elementary school, his parents were acquaintances with hers and every time he saw her, he would always give a nervous little wave. 

“Yeah, I’m good now.  Totally blanked out.” Cosima attempted a laugh to brush things off but Scott seen through it.  He raised an eyebrow but once the smile drowned off her face, he shrugged it off not wanting to pry.

“Good- I mean, good that you’re better. Not good that you blanked out, that’s not-“ He fumbled with his hands but Cosima giggled knowing his intentions were in the right place.

“Scott.” She shut him up, “Thanks.”

And that was that, the two little dorks found themselves hanging out daily.  They ate lunch in the little room off the gym with the yoga mats.  Cosima found herself almost living in his garage, mostly because it was filled with the most brilliant science apparatus she had ever seen in her life.  She never had many friends, but Scott was one of the best. 

The day came when it slipped out, she confessed to him truths about her sexuality that she had never told anyone else.  The only other person who knew she liked the ladies was Alexis, the shithead who told Lucia about Cosima’s crush after seeing the back of her’s chemistry book that had a little drawing of Delphine enveloped in a heart. 

To her relief, Scott confessed some truths of his own concerning his sexuality and it was then the master plan was created.  They were to be beards.  After the school found out about it, things died down and Cosima was left alone, the plan had worked.  She never seen the elites after the lunch hall incident as they were always skipping afternoons to organise the end of year beach party that of course, Cosima was never invited to.  But she didn’t mind, if she ever had to see any of those bitches again, she might need another bucket to hurl in.

Senior year finally ended.

But to Cosima’s surprise, she was moving.  Her parents got a job in a new lab, still working on their ‘top secret experiment’.  She didn’t mind, it wasn’t like she was leaving anything behind in the dreary town she grew up in.  Apart from Scott, but he was heading to the University of Minnesota and they had already shared their goodbyes.

The University of San Francisco didn’t sound too bad.  She spent the summer at a camp working as a camp counsellor and got those credit points that were desired to do well at USF.  While at camp, she met Corrie, an aspiring beauty guru and her sister Nadine, a major stoner.  With these two characters combined, Cosima left camp a different woman.  Her first year at USF was cool, but nothing too special.  At the end of her first year, her parents insisted she transferred because they didn’t see the grades they wanted to see.  They blamed the professors at USF and Cosima didn’t have the heart to tell them it was the plants she grew in the green house that the gardening club owned.

Switching Universities was difficult and a little risky, trying to get into a second year placement meant that Cosima wasn’t guaranteed a place but with her outstanding grades despite her smoking habits and those volunteer points she picked up the summer before – she was accepted into the Minnesota third level education centre. 

Her first day was amazing, she joined all the science-related clubs she could find.  The University was the most beautiful building she had ever seen and she couldn’t help but explore it. It was much bigger that USF.  After a few hours of taking a look around, she was led to her accommodation and from then she began decorating it to suit her needs, meaning a lot of open windows and keeping bottles of air fresheners everywhere.

During her adventure of the castle-like place she now called home, she ran into Scott who was over the moon to see her.  He hadn’t changed a bit!  His mop of hair still hung over his face even though his skin cleared up slightly.  The sweaters still remained a big part of his wardrobe but that was the best part about Scott, his completely horrible sense of fashion.

That night, they shared a bottle of wine and a joint back at Cosima’s apartment which didn’t go so well, it ended up becoming a repeat of the day they first properly met back during Senior Year.

“You’ve changed Cos, like completely.  I mean you don’t look like Cosima.” Scott’s words were slurred and he, very obviously, had too much.  Although Cosima couldn’t help look at herself in the long mirror hanging on the bathroom door.  She had changed.

The tangled, messy brown hair she used to sport back in high school was now pulled back into hundreds of tight black dreads.  A silver nose ring popped out from the nose and as she stared at it she recalled the drunken night she spent with Nadine at summer camp, she smiled at the memory of the cold needle piercing through her skin, she sighed at memory of Nadine’s baby-soft skin rubbing against hers.  Smirking to herself, she turned from the mirror and pulled a purple dressing robe over a white tank top that was a little too small for her but still cupped her curves perfectly.  She headed into the living room to find a passed out Scott.

The next morning Scott woke up, paralysed from head to toe.

“That’s what they call a hangover, Scotty.” Cosima gloated at her lack of illness from the previous night’s antics as she strolled around the apartment getting dressed.

This was her first day of classes at the University and man was she excited, Scott filled her in about all the new equipment that they brought into the evolutionary development labs and she was busting her ass to get her hands on it.

The halls were a never ending maze but she finally found her class.  Settling in wasn’t a problem for her, since high school she’d mastered her social skills but was never really able to master her friendship skills but hey, at least she didn’t sweat anymore!  She was partnered with a stocky guy named Ryan.  He practically drooled over Cosima as they discussed the topic that was given to them to research and trying to be polite she simply smiled at him.  “Great.” She thought, stuck with this guy for the rest of the year.

On the bright side however, the professor was pretty hot.  She was a typical Irish gem.  Emerald eyes with deep burgundy hair that flowed in curls until they dropped at the back of her spine.  Cosima spent the rest of the class drooling over Prof. Barr while Ryan drooled over her.

Cosima was the last out of the classroom, she packed up as slowly as possible just to get a better look at the woman who was to educate her for the rest of the term.  She’d charm her on another occasion, Cosima thought.  There was no way she wasn’t going to try and flirt with that one.  Barr went straight to the top of her ‘to do’ list.

It was noon by the time the class finished and Cosima had a couple of hours to waste before heading to her last class of the day.  She decided to hit the library up, Scott said he’d meet her there at one thirty, an hour and a half wasn’t too long to wait and plus, she hadn’t seen the place yet.

The path to the library was beautiful and extremely scenic.  It led from the main building out threw a little ‘mini’ forest that made the ten minute journey that little bit nicer. 

Emerging from the trees, Cosima found herself drinking in the image of the library.  It was nostalgic, as if she had just entered a different time period.  Marching up the marble steps to the main entrance, she fumbled in her pocket to grab her student card that she would slide in the doors to let herself in. 

It was just as breath-taking in the inside than it was on the outside, she could almost taste the words on the books.  There were rows upon rows of bookshelves that were filled with millions of pages of divine literature.

Just as she was putting her key card back into her pocket, she crashed straight into the person in front.  The key card, her books she was carrying and almost her own body tumbled to the ground.  She looked up to apologise before picking anything up but no words escaped her mouth.

Delphine Cormier stood in front of her, looking as shocked as Cosima. 

“Cosima?” The way she said her name in that mouth-watering French accent was exactly the way Cosima dreamed that she would say it.  Only this time, Delphine was confused – could this be the dork that she knew from high school? Because it certainly did not look like her.

“Delphine.” Cosima confirmed her identity and not wanting to shrink back into the scared and sweaty nerd from high school, she reached out her hand after mentally slapping the shocked look of her face but instead lighting it up with the best smile she could pull off with her heart beating as fast as it did.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two.

“You didn’t think to mention that Delphine Cormier is here?” Cosima’s hands were flying around the air like she’d lost complete control over them. “Totally not okay Scott!”

She had never moved so quickly before in her life.  After confirming to one of the girls who practically ruined her high school experience that it was in fact, dorky little Cosima Niehaus, she flew to the other side of the library and escaped through the back doors.  Every part of her being was shaking.  What the hell was the French cheerleader doing here?  Cosima recalled every last memory she had of Cormier and tried to piece together the puzzle.  Okay fine, she was smart but smart enough to study immunology? What Cosima thought was going to be the most exciting four years of her life was looking like it was about to turn into a repeat of the worst seven years that she had lived.

“I didn’t think it was an important detail to add in.” Scott finally got a word in.  He didn’t get a chance to defend his lack of silence concerning Delphine whilst Cosima ranted on. 

He met Delphine on their first day at the University.  He was just as surprised to see her as Cosima was.  But over the course of the year, he noticed this wasn’t the same girl he was terrified of in high school.  She always shone a friendly smile his way when they passed each other on the campus.  Sometimes she sat with him at lunch when his pals where off at a World of Warcraft conventions (which was every other week).  It was as if he had never met this girl before.  She was softer, in more ways than one.  She looked much more laid back then she did a few years back, her expressions were much more genuine and the way she spoke was no longer one worded and harsh. 

“You didn’t think it was important to tell me that the girl who forced me back into the closet is now roaming the halls that I planned to unleash the gay amongst?” She was so angry.  More so at Scott than at Delphine.

“Cosima, you’re not gay?” Scott chirped.

“But I’m not straight am I?” It didn’t matter to her, the labels.  But now, she could only have one. “I might as well be now though!” Cosima could only imagine the shrill laughter than would burst out of Delphine’s mouth as soon as she found out that Scott the gay scout and Cosima the carpet-muncher were really what their high school nicknames described.

 “She’s not like that Cos-“

“Yeah, and I smoke cigarettes.” Cosima couldn’t help but laugh.  There was no way that that girl could have changed.  You know what they say, once a bitch always a bitch.  Scott grabbed his patterned grey blazer and threw his hands in the hair.  He knew there was no point in arguing with her over this, she would just have to find it out herself. 

“I gotta run, I’ll call back tomorrow to see if you’re still going and I’ll try to listen a little more.”  Cosima barely took him into consideration as he left.  She had already lit herself up one of her favourite women and started spilling her problems to Mary J.

Scott shook his head and headed for the door.  As soon as that smoke hit her head, that rant would just be slow-motion and much more aggressive. 

He opened the door and led himself into the topic of Cosima’s fury.

“Delphine.” It seemed she was just running everyone everyone that day.

“Scott, I- I came to,” Her face begin to paint itself a light shade of rose. “Am I interrupting?”

The sound of that delicious French accent came flooding into the back of Cosima’s apartment and just like smelling a mouth-watering scent, Cosima’s head followed the trail.

“No, no. I was just leaving.” Scott turned back to shoot a reassuring smile at Cosima before resuming focus on Delphine. “Nice to see you.” And with that he brushed past her and crossed his fingers that his best friend didn’t throw something at the French girl and remained as polite as possible.

Delphine hovered at the door, unsure of what her next move should be.  Cosima came into her line of sight and she couldn’t help but run her eyes over each part of her post-high school figure.  The hair, the skin, the clothes and something she couldn’t put her finger on just seemed so, so matured.  Delphine thought back to her first day at their high school.

 

“Hey, don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.” Delphine was trying her best to follow the smaller girl’s instructions on each part of the school.  Her English was in its early stages of development but she memorized a word then matched it to the places that her tour guide was showing her. 

After a few days of hanging around with Cosima, Delphine enjoyed her company.  The language barrior  never interfered with their blooming friendship. Most of the time they spent together was at lunch where they would occupy the rose-garden at the back of the building, sharing Cosima’s iPod which would play a range of Johnny Cash to out-dated electro mixes.

Everything changed when Cooper James came along.

Delphine and CJ where dating in a matter of days and as soon as it was official, she was an elite.  Cosima and she never shared a lunch again; they rarely even shared a friendly ‘hello’.

 

The air in the apartment was awkward and neither of the girls knew what to say to each other.  Even when they first met, they had no idea what to say to each other.  But that was because Delphine didn’t _know_ how to say anything – that was different now.

“Salut,” Delphine tried her best to make things a little less hostile.  “I came to see how you are liking things here.  Scott told me you were transferring.”

Cosima nodded.  She knew that if she spoke something out loud, it wouldn’t be the nicest thing in the world.  But then a smile, which was completely out of her control, covered her face.  Damn it.

This was the effect that Delphine had on her.  No matter how badly she wanted to hate her, she never could. 

The French lady had a hold on her like no one ever had before.  Cosima could never fight it off.  It drowned her in an ocean of desire and even if she tried to surface herself for a breath, it consumed her completely before she had the chance.

“Yeah, it’s totally different from San Fran,” Delphine’s confused smile pushed Cosima’s next words out. “Like, a good different.” Delphine crossed a leg over the other, leaning against the door frame sharing a little laugh with Cosima.

“Uh, come in.” The dreaded girl ushered Delphine inside not wanting to seem rude.  The hold locked her down once more and she began to sink.

Delphine entered the apartment and her eyes fell all over the decor.  The smell of fresh paint crawled up her nose and she admired the choice of orange-tinted walls that had the occasional burgundy curtains falling over them.  The bookshelves that are usually empty in her own apartment were filled to the brink at Cosima’s.   Little plants homed themselves on various desks around the place and papers were messily covering the rest of the tables.

Then Cosima’s vice hit her.  The herbal scent was one she was used to as she lived across the way from a punk couple who were studying psychology but seeing Cosima with the stick in her hand just seemed unusual.  Seeing Cosima now seemed unusual in general.  When Scott told her that his ex-high school flame was coming to the University to study evo-devo, she did not expect the woman that stood in front of her eyes.  That’s exactly what she was, a woman.  No longer the frightened little girl that used to avoid eye-contact with her in the school hallways but rather the bright-faced woman who couldn’t keep her eyes of Delphine.

Cosima realized she was staring a little and quickly turned to the mini-fridge in the corner, “You want a drink? I got beer, Daniel’s, rosé, vodka-“

“Wine would be nice.” Delphine sat one of the antique armchairs, trying her best to keep things as cool as possible.  She knew Cosima was feeling the tension just as much as she was but she appreciated the civil attitude Cosima was showing her. 

Delphine realized that they weren’t on the friendliest terms.  That was part of the reason she decided to visit the Niehaus apartment. 

She never meant for the cafeteria incident to happen back in high-school, she didn’t even know that it was going to happen.  Not once did she suspect that the nerdy science girl had a fascination with her and to be honest, she never believed it.  She took it as simple bitchy American high school behaviour.  It was never something she enjoyed and never something she wanted to be a part of.

“You’re studying immunology , right?” Cosima handed her guest a half-filled glass of the cheap wine she picked up at the airport. Then realizing she sounded like she was creeping all over the Cormier girl she tried to patch the words back into her mouth. “I seen your text-book, not to sound weird.” She tried to laugh it off but she just wanted to hit her head off the wall and start this all over again.

Delphine, however, found this simply endearing.  Cosima may have switched hairstyles and painted some ink on her arm but she was still that enchanting tour guide that she once knew.

“Yes.  I was thinking about taking a course Neurobiology but when looking at the prospectus, Immunology just seemed so, so,” Delphine waved her hand, trying to find the right word to use to describe her passion, “so fascinating!”

Cosima could feel the love Delphine had for her subject as she spoke about it.  Never before would she have believed that the blonde French cheerleader would fall in love with anything other than the douche football captain but here she is, speaking about stem-cells as if she was engaged to them.

“And you?” Delphine got so caught up in describing her obsession with the new micro-biology equipment she was using last term to study anti-bodies that she forgot to ask Cosima was she decided was her forte.  “What course are you taking?”

“Oh um, evolutionary development.  My parents majored in it and I guess the interest runs in the family.” Cosima shrugged, letting her mouth rise at the left side.  Her love for the subject was just as strong as Delphine’s love for Immunology but she didn’t want to have a nerd off with girl in front of her.  She’d much rather listen to that gentle French accent and indulge herself in the twists and turns of the vowels that escaped Delphine’s lips.

“Ah, I see. How do you find the course?” Cosima now sat on the rustic couch that bordered the armchair.  She tucked her legs under herself and finished the illegal roll up by stumping it out on the ash trash that was glued to the table in front of her.

“It’s completely different than the San Fran course.   It’s a lot more hands on, which is cool.” Cosima couldn’t help herself as she smirked, remembering exactly what or who, more so, she’d like to get her hands on.

For the next couple of hours it was back and forth like that.  The conversation began to flow with ease and it felt natural to them.  It was as if they had completely forgotten the past and had just met that evening. 

Delphine moved over to land herself on the couch beside Cosima as she was shown genetic patterns that had been fascinating Cosima for months.  Both completely lost it and overloaded each other’s brains with their theory’s and debates on topics that arose during the course of the evening.

 “Looks like we’re out of wine.” Cosima pointed out as she went to refill Delphine’s glass. “I can run down to the mini-mart? It’s like, two minutes away.”

An unstoppable giggle burst out of Delphine’s mouth as she shook her head.

“I think I’ve had enough for tonight!” Her head was so light, she felt as if any second it was to lift her off the couch and hit the ceiling. “But we will do this again, yes?” The giggling stopped and turned very much serious. 

Delphine’s eyes locked to Cosima’s waiting for an answer. It was risky to ask but the night was so enjoyable for her that she had to take that jump of faith.  She loved spending time with Cosima.  It felt like spending time with her friend’s from Paris, easy and comfortable – unlike the previous friendships she had made in the U.S.

Throughout their evening together, she didn’t get a chance to stop and think about who she was chatting to concerning her research into human evolution.  She realized at that moment, that she had just spent hours with a girl who almost ruined her life.  A girl who had changed her life.  A girl who made her realized that she, to quote her earlier remark, ‘wasn’t straight’.  Delphine Cormier was now facing her, asking her to ‘hang out’.

“Definitely.” Cosima confirmed.  She just about stopped herself from letting a massive beamer splatter over her face. 

Instead she saved it for the minute the door closed behind Delphine after the French woman kissed both of her cheeks. 

Cosima flopped onto her silk sheets and buried her face into her pillow letting out a half-scream half-laugh.  Her emotions were all over the place and to be frank, she loved every minute of it.

“We will do this again?” The words echoed around her head.

“Hell yes.” Cosima whispered to herself before she faded into one of her vivid Cormier dreams.  One that she was very familiar with. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

“Cosima?” Delphine fought her way through a jungle of leaves in the University greenhouse.  The smell of pollen was choking her already and she had only entered the small glass house five seconds ago.  She had to stop to consume as much oxygen as she possibly could.  After climbing the west side stairs to the abandoned part of the building, she realized she wasn’t as fit as she was a few years back.

Cosima was nowhere to be seen.  All that was in her vision was every-colour-of-the-rainbow flower buds. 

“Hey, how’d you find me?” The slick American accent rolled of Cosima’s tongue and caused Delphine to almost jump out of her skin.

“Merde!” The blonde turned to face the smaller girl that appeared behind her, as if out of the blue (or green, should she say). “You scared me.” An embarrassed giggle swam from her lips as she tried to resume her normal breathing pattern.  “Scott told me I would find you here.”

“Well,” Cosima threw her hands up in the air,” He was right.” She slapped them back down to her sides releasing a toothy grin that drew another adorable laugh from Delphine.

“I did not think you enjoyed nature.” The dreaded girl definitely did not seem like the type to get her hands dirty. Well in the gardening sense of the word. 

“What can I say? I’m a jack of all trades, master of them too.” Cosima smirked.

“Cheeky.” Delphine returned the same facial expression.  That was something she loved the most about this ‘new’ Cosima.  She was indeed, very cheeky.  In high-school, she was subservient.  The elites that Delphine reluctantly called ‘friends’ constantly made jokes about the four-eyed science lesbian.  But this was not that girl, as she had thought many a time since they bumped into each other in the library.  This was ‘cheeky Cosima.’

“What are _you_ doing here?” Cosima’s arms folded over her chest as she questioned the French girl. They weren’t meant to be hanging out again until the next night, but then again, Cosima wasn’t complaining. “It’s midnight and I’m pretty sure there’s no sweet micro-bio apparatus in here.” She toyed with Delphine.

“It is first week of the term, everyone is going to town.” Delphine lingered her expression, waiting for Cosima to invite herself along.

“Not everyone.” A lop-sided smile hung from Cosima’s lips as she passed the girl in front of her.  Fresher’s week was not her scene.  Man, if she had to sit in a class with those idiots all day, she certainly did not want to spend her social life with them too.  Nudging past Delphine, she headed back to her previous location.

“Okay, not everyone.” Delphine hoisted herself up on a dirt-covered work bench and gently swung her legs.

“What? You wanna stay and garden with me?” Cosima stopped in her treks and turned to shoot her newfound buddy a playfully shocked look.

“So you _are_ gardening.”  Delphine fished out the answer to the question she asked when she first arrived.

Cosima breathed a smile before raising her index finger and beckoned Delphine to follow after her.

She led them to the back of the glass cottage where Delphine could only see soggy, muck-covered cardboard boxes but before she had a chance to question Cosima’s directions, the girl’s hands were enveloped in a pair of green gardening gloves and she began to remove the huge stack of boxes.

When she was finished, a musty wooden door came into sight.

“After you.” Cosima sighed, out of breath from her handiwork.  What she revealed after she twisted the door knob open was one of the smallest rooms Delphine had ever seen.   The taller girl of the two almost had to kneel so as her head didn’t hit the roof.

However, the exterior had the French lady fooled.  What she found inside was the cosiest place, she believed, in the world.  The walls were papered badly with an antique cream pattern and the floor was covered in three different second-hand rugs.  Four beanbags and a cushion covered the majority of the surface area apart from a small box that was lit with a cruel yellow light.

“Scott and his nerds aren’t as feminine as they seem, like I mean this is a pretty cool makeshift space for a couple of virgins.” Cosima took a place on the beanbag closet to the lamp-lit box.  The bag seemed to caress her perfectly.

“Scott made this?” Cosima nodded like a proud mother at Delphine’s question.

“Neat, right? He told me on Skype last year that he was working on it but I never believed him.” Cosima’s hand drifted to the side of the beanbag and she grabbed a half-full tin of soda but before sipping on it she continued, “The first night I got here, he proved me wrong.”

“Does the University know that he, that he constructed this? I’m sure that it wouldn’t be allo-“

“Lighten up,” Cosima cut her off, “Scott’s a night owl and the old guys that run this place are up to catch the morning worms.” She smirked that, now familiar, smirk that made Delphine almost feel at ease.

“What is in this?” Curiosity pushed Delphine to reach over to the box that was being nurtured by the light but cold fingers brushed her hands away from it before she got a peek at what was inside.

“Hey,” Cosima slurped her soda, trying not to laugh at the image of Delphine’s face when she realized what the already disallowed room was being used for. “No touching. Those planets are extremely shy when it comes to strangers.”

“What? Cosima, what is that sme-“ Then it struck her.  How did she not catch on before this?  “Pot. You and Scott are growing pot.”

“You should think about dropping biology and jumping on a poetry course man, you got skills.” The look on Delphine’s face was priceless and right about now, Cosima wished she hadn’t of left her phone at home.  Something she was prone to doing due to the fact that her mother loved calling past twelve at night.

“Cosima!” Delphine whispered in a panic, “If you get caught-“

“I’m not getting caught, they’re Scott’s babies. I’m, like, babysitting.” An innocent smile tickled her mouth as she watched the European internally process what she had given up her night for.

“I want to change what I said before,” Delphine stumbled over her words, “You are not cheeky.  You are, you are very silly.  You could lose your place here!” She wanted to shake some sense into the senseless girl that lay in the beanbag in front of her.  Into the illegal harvester that was just then emptying dried leaves of her friends ‘babies’ into a cigarette paper.

“You in?” Cosima leaked the question out of the side of her mouth that wasn’t holding a roach in between her lips.

“Do not light that in here! We will not be able to breathe!” Delphine wanted to get up and run a million miles from this tiny room that seemed a lot less cozy than when she first settled in but she couldn’t leave her immature friend alone to take the fall for her insane lack of responsibility.

“Oh we’ll be able to breathe,” Cosima responded slyly, “Just not the type of air you’re used to.” And with that she lit up the freshly rolled joint that hung from the middle of her glossed-tinted mouth.

Delphine was coughing in a matter of seconds.  The fumes of Cosima’s creation had already homed themselves in every corner of the small space that she found herself in somehow.

“Cosima!” She tried not to shout but she couldn’t help herself.  Furious wasn’t the word for how she was feeling.  This night couldn’t have turned out anymore different if she had of attempted to imagine it.

“Chill out dude, just relax.  Enjoy.” Cosima’s head drifted off behind her to dent itself in the bag she was sitting on. 

There was no point of arguing with her.  Delphine made the quickest, most efficient plan she could create in the limited amount of time she had.  Cosima already looked pretty baked and if luck was on Delphine’s side, she’d pass out pretty soon.  As soon as she did, the weight training she took as a bottom on the cheerleading squad would come in handy.  She didn’t know how she would do it but one way or another, she would get Cosima out of this ‘hole’ and back into her apartment before anyone found out that this ‘hole’ even existed.

As she waited for the drug to kick in, she scoped the place.  How the hell did four science-geeks manage to build this place?  The walls seemed to be made out of metal. 

Ah, she thought, scrap metal from the remains of the science fair last year.  How Scott retrieved them from the trash though was something she couldn’t figure out. 

Not because she didn’t have time, Cosima was still wide awake - but rather because her mind had turned slightly foggy.

The smoke had wiggled its way up her nose and into her system.

“Try some,” Cosima’s voice was rough, something Delphine noticed and couldn’t help but to admit to herself, was slightly attractive.  She shook her head though, the place was hot-boxed completely and she couldn’t even form words at this point. “Live a little, man.” Cosima reached out the burning stick to Delphine.

Staring at the flaming orange at the top of it for a minute, she lost all sense of her previous plan and decided that, yes, she would ‘live a little’.

Pressing the roach to her mouth, she eyed Cosima, watching for her approval she took a drag from the roll up.

“Petite merde.” Delphine breathed, not breaking the eye contact between her and her companion, before bursting into a fit of laughter.

 

Hours passed and one by one, joints had been put out and lit up. 

Both girls had ditched the bean bags and were appreciating the softness of the rugs Scott had decorated the place with.

Cosima was resting her head on Delphine’s stomach when a French accent broke the waves of laughter coming from both their mouths.

“I do not understand how did the girl I knew in high school turn into a pot smoker.” Delphine tried her best to use American slang but the words simply scrawled their way out.

Lifting her head back to get a look at the woman she was, quite comfortably, using as a pillow, Cosima managed to lift one side of her mouth into a confident expression.

“I’m not the same girl you knew in high school.”

“No, you’re not.” The Paris-coated words twisted in the air until it turned thick with tension.  Both could feel it but Cosima was not as comfortable basking in it as Delphine was.  She wiggled her body a little, trying to act as calm as possible but something about the atmosphere un-nerved her and un-nerving Cosima Niehaus was a very difficult thing to do, especially under the influence of Mary J.

“Cosima?” Delphine’s voice was soft now, almost breathless.

“Yeah?” Cosima’s voice mirror effect.

“Did you really, what Brandy said?”

“What?” Her dreads brushed Delphine’s midriff as she forced out a very nervous ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’ laugh.

“You know.” Delphine smiled, adoring this power she had over the, extremely obvious, awkward girl that lay on her stomach.

“I don’t man, like you gotta work on your question structure.” Knowing what was inevitable to come next, Cosima began to light up the last joint she had rolled, “We’ll continue this conversation tomorrow.” She lied as she tried to worm her way out of this situation.

Delphine snatched the paper from Cosima’s mouth and held it over her own head. 

This was not normal Delphine behaviour she thought to herself.  Her whole life she has been an introvert but whatever chemicals were playing with her head, she didn’t care.  This feeling of fearlessness she was leaking out felt amazing and she was going to put it to good use.

“Did you have an _obsession_?” She teased.

“Oh come on dude, obsessions are for internet stalkers.  Or even worse, broneys.  Do I look like either of those?” Cosima had already broken eye-contact with Delphine at this point.

Delphine couldn’t help but share a laugh with Cosima, even if she knew that her friend’s laugh was forced.  Honestly, the European didn’t mean to pry so much but this was the question she had always wanted to ask.

“Seriously.” Her laughed died down and without even realizing, Delphine had reached her hand out to play with one of Cosima’s locks.

A tingling sensation exploded along Cosima’s spine the second Delphine’s hand brushed the side of her neck.  She knew that her high school crush wasn’t going to give up until she was told the truth.

“Obsession is the wrong word,” Cosima turned her head back to face Delphine’s puppy dog eyes, the one’s that always did and mostly likely, always will melt her heart. “More of a fascination.  I’d never met a French chick before.  I heard your culture is very endearing.” A simper smile lingered on her lips as she sarcastically drew the last sentence out.

“I had no idea, you know.” Delphine’s face was full of sincerity now, “about what Brandy was going to do.  If I had of known I wouldn’t hav-“

“It’s alright Delphine, what’s in the past can stay there, man.  Along with that hairstyle.  Damn, what was I thinking?“

“I thought it was very cute.” Delphine twirled a different lock around her index finger.

Never in her life did Cosima expect this.  Delphine Cormier was ‘flirting’ with her? And there was no way she was going to miss this opportunity.  She knew all too well about regret and how it can play with your head.

So in that moment, she took a leap of faith.

Lifting her arm, she slowly moved it to caress Delphine’s extraordinarily soft cheek.

“You’re every cute.” Cosima hushed.

Two pairs of chocolate brown eyes burned into each other. 

The blonde haired girl began to lower her head and Cosima felt hers rise.

 

“Who’s in there?”

The clunk of glass meeting glass shattered the two apart as Cosima practically bounced off Delphine.  She pressed a finger to the French girls lips and the both of them tried to breathe as quietly as possible as they heard footsteps coming closer and closer to their setting.

 

“Please tell me you didn’t smoke all my pot.” Scott groaned as he opened the little wooden door.

Fuck you Scott, Cosima screamed in her head.

Petite merde, Delphine joined in the mental abuse.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

A smooth breeze rolled its way under the half-cracked open window that shone light into Cosima’s classroom.  Twenty more minutes of this class and she would march her way straight to the library and beat the shit out of her best friend.

She didn’t get a chance to do it the night before after he ruined her almost-kiss with the girl she’d been crazy for since high school.

 

Delphine left as soon as Scott lit up the last joint that Cosima had rolled before he had interrupted the two girls.

Lady dreads walked her companion home.  Not a word was spoken but it wasn’t awkward.  It was almost comforting.

Well, for Cosima at least.

Delphine’s head was going crazy. What the hell would have happened if that dork didn’t come to check on his plants? She didn’t know if she was happy that he was thirsty for a high or if she was angry at his lack of patience.  All she knew for sure was that she had never thought of women in the same way she thought of Cosima.  What way did she think of Cosima?

These were the questions drowned her the entire night. 

 

The bell rang for the end of class and signalled it was time for Cosima’s inner Cena to come out.  She slung her leather satchel bag over her shoulder and headed out to walk the forest-like path that led her to Scott’s hiding place.

“Delphine, hey!” Scott was given an extra couple of minutes of safety as Cosima spotted the golden curls heading up the corridor. 

Delphine didn’t know if she should stop or keep her legs moving.  She couldn’t deal with the probable conversation that Cosima was about to emerge in.  Cosima didn’t stop however; she had caught up with Delphine in a matter of seconds.  The French girl had to face the music.

“Bonjour Cosima.” Delphine suppressed a sigh and pulled out the cheeriest smile she could find but it fooled no one, especially not the intelligent girl that stood in front of her.

“Aw man,” Cosima then realized Delphine’s lack of conversation from the previous night was not because she was too ecstatic to form sentences but rather the opposite. “Look, about last night-“

“I have decided to stick to my cigarettes.” The blonde tried her best to avoid the topic.  She dug out a laugh hoping Cosima would get the hint.

“No, I mean about-“ Cosima definitely did not get the hint.

“I won’t tell anyone about Scott’s room but, but I really must go now,” She didn’t mean to be rude but her legs had a mind of their own and started to carry her off, “You have my word!” If she wasn’t wearing heeled boots then she probably would have sprinted at this point.

Cosima stood in that spot half-stunned, half-embarrassed.

That did not go as she planned.  Not that she was expecting Delphine to run into her arms and proclaim her undying love or anything but she was extremely under prepared for utter rejection. 

Cosima’s mood turned from shock to anger.  What the hell? I mean, it’s not like she came onto Delphine! It was the other way around and for that European dick to embarrass her like that, no way was she going to take that.

“Fuck her.” Cosima muttered to herself before storming off to the library to take her anger out on Scott, even more so than she was originally going to before.

The glass windows sweeped her vision as she stormed down the halls.  This was personal, Scott claimed Delphine had changed but there was no difference between the feelings Cosima was having now and the feelings she had back in high-school. That girl continued to torture her.  Was it just her sick way of getting a kick by mind-fucking a little dorky science-geek?  Well, not anymore. 

Cosima had worked so hard to re-build herself after leaving high-school and Delphine Cormier was not going to crash back into her life and bring with her the past.

“Sorry!” A harsh accent hit Cosima’s ears as she collided shoulder-to-shoulder with a woman as she turned the corner.

“Professor Barr,  sorry.  I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Cosima explained, a little flustered.  The closest look she had gotten of her teacher was from a desk at the back of her biology classroom but here, standing an inch away; she got the full picture and damn was it a masterpiece.

Long, auburn hair cupped an oval face that was covered with flawless freckled skin.   This woman had the most beautiful blue eyes that Cosima had ever seen. She wasn’t even sure it was possible to have eyes as light as the ones in front of her.  They were crystal clear, so much so that if she had of had more time to look, Cosima was sure she could have seen a perfect reflection in them.

“No worries, got somethin’ on your mind? You’re not lookin’ too happy there.” Barr showered her with an empathetic smile and mixing that was the luscious Irish accent that sung from her mouth, Cosima couldn’t help but laugh her worries away.

“No no, I’m fine.” She couldn’t get the drooling puppy look off her face, damn it!

“Positive? I’m headin’ for a coffee if you wanna join me?”

“Sure!” Cosima jumped at the opportunity, this was her chance to lay on the moves she’d promised herself she would whip out on the hot Professor.

 

“Have you seen Cosima by any chance?” Scott knew she was on the hunt for him; he had pieced together what was happening last night before he interrupted.

“Uh, yes.  She was coming out of the east-wing classroom about an hour ago.”  Delphine was still a little shaken by the conversation she had with the girl but by now, guilt had kicked in and she realized that wasn’t the best way she could have handled things.

“Shit, do you know where she was going?” Scott needed to pin Cosima’s location down so as he could avoid it at all times in the day.

“Non, sorry.” If she had of known where she was, Delphine would have made her way there and started on apologising.

“Thanks anyway.” Scott pushed a quick smile through his terrified facial expression and started off towards the cafeteria for lunch but just as he passed the tall girl he was brought to a halt.  “Holy shit.”

“What?” Delphine was about to go on the search for Cosima also but she turned to see what was wrong with the boy behind her first.

“I can’t believe her.” He began to laugh and Delphine turned to see what he was looking at.  There in front of them, a little way down the hall, she saw Cosima and the biology teacher sitting at the entrance of the University’s restaurant.  Barr was practically on top of Cosima they were sitting that close to one another. “She told me she’d bag that one.” Scott had folded his arms across his chest, looking like a proud father. He also realized that if Cosima got laid she wouldn’t be as mad about the whole Delphine thing.

“Bag?” Delphine whispered confused, she still wasn’t used to all the American slang words.

“Sleep with.” He practically shouted the words as he drew them out, as if he was speaking to someone who spoke no English at all.  After he explained this, he turned his head over his should to get one last look at his used-to-be nerd turned hot teacher shagger, then he turned in the opposite direction so as not to cock-block his friend again.

Delphine couldn’t stop looking at the scene in front of her.

“Hey,” She had to break her stare when Scott called back to her, “If Cosima’s too busy to hang out with you tonight, there’s a party in the north dorms.  Everyone’s going. You should come.” With that, he headed for a fast-food restaurant located just off the campus for lunch.

Delphine shrugged off the invitation and went back to starring at the two ladies in front of her.

She didn’t know what she was feeling.  Hurt? Of course not! She thought to herself, this was her buddy.  Cosima’s toothy grin showed just how happy she was to be getting the woman ‘bagged’. 

The longer she watched the two, the longer the feeling of hurt became evident to Delphine.  Not wanting to play with her own emotions anymore, she passed the canteen and took her place on a bench outside in the main garden.

It was the fumes, she tried to convince herself but the replaying image in her head argued with her.

Taking out her copy of a French novel she had been engrossed in, she slumped down on the seat and entered the world of the pages in her hand.

 

“Yo, Cosima!” A man’s shout echoed in the tunnels of Delphine’s ears and she was snapped out of the plotline she was reading.  She looked up to see a boy running across the court in front of her to catch up to, none only than, Cosima. 

“Ryan, what do you want?” Cosima’s mood was 10 out of 10 right now and the one thing she didn’t want was to be brought down by this asshole.

“Are you coming tonight?” He was like a little fly that just wouldn’t leave a pile of shit alone.  Constantly circling it.

“Most likely not if you’re there.” Cosima smiled the most sarcastic smile she could.

“Ha ha, funny. I’ll see you at eight.” Poor Ryan honestly thought she was joking with him, bless.

“Are you really going to go?” Delphine couldn’t help but hear the conversation in front of her and ended up gravitating towards the two.

“It’s evo-devo only, sorry.” Cosima didn’t mean to be so harsh on the puppy-like girl who had joined the conversation with her but even after a lunch date with her hot educator, she was still a little angry.

“But we can make exceptions.” Cosima nor Delphine noticed Ryan’s heart-shaped eyes that had come about when he found them resting on Delphine’s face.  “You’re invited, don’t listen to her.” He slid his shoulder in between them slightly so as to face himself in front of the hot French chick.  “I’ll see you there, babe.” He slipped the last word in, in a woeful attempt to flirt with this angel that had appeared.

Cosima scoffed and resumed her walk to her apartment.  Briskly pushing past Ryan, Delphine built up enough speed to walk step-in-step with Cosima.

“Hey.” Delphine wanted nothing more than for Cosima to forget their earlier conversation and start again.  Cosima didn’t forget and she certainly didn’t want to talk. “Are you angry with me?” Delphine’s words were a little breathy, Cosima had picked up the pace and even though the French girl’s legs where a little longer, she still struggled to keep up.

“Look,” Cosima stopped, “We don’t have to do this.  I know you feel like you owe me something after high-school but you don’t.  It’s cool.” She headed off once more.

“Cosima,” Delphine pleaded as she began her chase again, “I do not feel I ‘owe’ you something! Stop,” She tugged gently on one of the black-haired girl’s arms causing them both to stop. “We are friends!”

“Glad you clarified that for yourself.” And with that, Cosima stalked off one last time.

Delphine couldn’t move.  She knew chasing after her wasn’t going to fix things.  She had ruined something she didn’t even know she had.

 

The place was a mess by the time Delphine got there.  The North dorms were packed with students.  Some were already passed out, some were hogging the couches and others were simply trying their best to get ‘bagged’.

“You came!” A familiar voice turned Delphine around. 

“Ryan.” Politeness was something she was taught as a child but it was hard to use these skills when faced with a boy like this.

“You look great.” His eyes trailed down her body, taking in the silver dress that curved out in all the right places on her figure.

“Merci.” Delphine’s eyes however were scoping out the room for a head of dreadlocks but the search came to no avail. “Is Cosima here?” She asked the boy who still hadn’t found his way back up to her face.

“Nope, the last I seen her she was heading into town with Miss four-leaf clover.” Delphine raised an eyebrow, “Barr.” She nodded solemnly. 

Did she really think that Cosima was going to come to a college party when she had an Irish gem at her disposal? Honestly, as she dressed to impress earlier that evening, she thought Cosima was going to be waiting for her in the dorms.

“She ditched you, huh?” Ryan seen the glimmers of lost hope in Delphine’s eyes and couldn’t help to ask.

“No, no.  I just thought she would be here.  With Scott.” Delphine didn’t need to ask what ‘ditched’ meant.  She sensed the slight hint of pity in Ryan’s voice.

“Well, she’s not.  How about a dance then?” Boy, was this guy persistent.

“Maybe later.” The French lady tried her best not to be rude but it was hard with Ryan being such a typical frat boy.  She turned her back on him and headed for a much needed alcoholic beverage. 

Hey, she was already at the party and even if the effort was for Cosima, she spent time on getting ready and she wasn’t about to let that go to waste.

 

“Leavin’ so soon?” The delicious ginger professor asked as Cosima started to pull on her red coat. 

The small bar they had spent the evening in was getting pretty backed up and not to add insult but Cosima was a little uncomfortable.  Barr had invited her out for a quiet drink at the local bar that was built just off the campus but a few other Professors had joined them.  She loved adults and intelligent conversation and all that but Cosima didn’t fancy spending a Friday night with the staff room.

“My friend’s hosting a social gathering,” She lied, it wasn’t a massive lie.  Okay so he wasn’t _hosting_ a _social gathering_ of much but he was helping out at a college party, what’s the difference? “He invited me a couple days ago, it’d be rude to bail.”

Barr smiled understandingly.

“This was nice,” She added whilst walking Cosima out to the front door, “We should do it again.”

“One hundred percent, count me in.” This was not what she was expecting.  Barr’s exterior had her fooled.  What lay beneath that cool front was a lack of personality and a horrible sense of humour. Cosima managed a gentle smile to reassure her Professor that she meant what she had said but maybe that smile meant something different to the other woman.

Before Cosima had a chance to stop it, Barr’s lips had suffocated her own.

“Woah, uhm.” Just as quickly as it happened, Cosima had managed to escape the lip-lock.

“Oh God,  I just thought tha’”

“No, it’s cool man.  I, I just.  I’m sorta in something.” Cosima had no idea what she was saying.  In something?

“In something?” Barr was just as confused as her student.

“I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out myself.” Okay, maybe ‘in something’ wasn’t the correct use of words.  She could have said something along the lines of ‘still drooling over my high-school crush.’

“Well, if you can’t figure it out.  I’m available most weekend nights.” Cosima couldn’t help but smile at the playful Irish accent.

They hugged the awkwardness out and Niehaus jumped into the first taxi that came along.

 

“I don’t get the fascination with her.” Ryan had eventually pinned Delphine down and they were now sharing a drink on one of the aged couches in the quieter back room that only took shelter to six or seven students. “The accent’s cute but she reminds me of this teacher I had once in pre-school, total alcoholic.”

“She is an alcoholic?” Delphine had tuned out of the conversation up until this point.  Asking questions about Barr was simply for research, to make sure her buddy wasn’t going to go down the wrong road.

“Nope, but I heard that every college she teaches at, she makes it her mission to sleep with two students per semester.” Delphine’s eyes widened the more he went on, gossip story one after the other.

“Is it true? What you heard?” She whispered, so engrossed in these tales.

“What’s it worth to you?” Ryan slipped one arm across the back of the seat Delphine was sitting on.

“What?” Her French accent only added to her confusion.

“What do I get out of telling you my knowledge on B?” He smirked a smirk that caused Delphine’s stomach to turn inside her.

“No, no.” Delphine burst out in a fit of laugher, was this boy really that pathetic? She jumped off the couch as was planning to head as far away as possible from that idiot.

“Aw, come on!” Ryan had already moved himself in front of the girl he was so desperately trying to win over. “I know I’m not the most attractive guy but I’m, I’m nice when you get to know me better!”

When she was little, Delphine’s father used to tell her to always be polite to ignorant men because if you’re rude back, they will turn into ignorant _boys_.

“I do not doubt that you are, but I’m not interested. Désolé.” Again, she tried to edge past him.  It seemed that was all she was doing this day. attempting yet failing to pass this boy.

“Just a kiss,” He pleaded. “It would be an honour.” Learning lines from ‘how to pick up girls’ on an online article never did him any justice in the past but he decided why not give it one last try.

Delphine could only smile at his efforts, she reached up and landed a quick peck on his gruff cheek.

“For your efforts.” She left the room to find the drinks table, still quietly giggling the conversation but she couldn’t shake the rumours he had shared with her.

 

“Yo, Scott!” Ryan seemed to be appearing everywhere.  God knows how he managed it in between his failed pick up sessions.

“Hey, what’s up?” Scott greeted him.  They had been friends since the day they started college.  Scott was the same kid he was in high-school when he entered the doors of the Minnesota University, as was Ryan but the difference between them was Ryan the dork wanted to transform into Ryan the dick.  He was the one who got Scott into pot but not into being such an asshole.

“You’ll never guess what just happened?” Ryan’s face lit up like a light-bulb, ready to fill his friend in.

“What? Did your balls finally drop?” The sound came from a familiar voice that was located behind Scott.

Cosima came into view and gave Scott a little around the waist hug before turning to her lab-partner to hear the latest news.

“Well, while you were off playing with your lucky charms,” He folded him arms across his chest before finishing his sentence, “I was charming and got extremely lucky with your French baguette.”

Cosima’s heart split so fast in that moment, she swore she could feel it happen.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Every set of eyes in the room seemed to focus on the French girl who had just entered the micro-biology lab to finish some coursework that was due soon.  The last time Delphine had felt this many eyes on her back was the day she joined her first American high school.  Paranoid that she had left a tag on her new silk shirt, she hurried to her seat to check in private.

But privacy wasn’t awarded her way.  Even when she took her place at her usual desk, blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes, _prying_ eyes still found themselves locked on her being.  If it was anyone else, they would have asked what was so fascinating but this was Delphine Cormier. 

Despite her impeccable social skills and gifted mind, she was still extremely non-confrontation.  So in that moment, when anyone else would have asked the others did they want to take a picture, Delphine lowered her head and took out some papers from her bag.

A rush of high-heeled footsteps broke the short-lasted silence and stopped at the side of Delphine’s body.  When the French girl looked up, she saw a familiar face.  It was Caroline, a stereotypical valley girl from LA who had been quite lovely to Delphine when they first met back at the Open Day of the Minnesota University.  The more the first year passed, the less the two girls seen of each other but they shared a friendly conversation now and again if they just happened to find themselves in the situation to do so. 

Whenever things got a little too noisy back in the dorms, Delphine would trot to the student common room and most of the time, the conversation in there was about Caroline and her drunken behaviour with the boys.  Not one to gossip, Delphine never retained any of this information or bothered to ponder her time over it.

“You slept with him?” Maybe she should have listened now and again, especially if it meant she knew who the hell Caroline was talking about.

“Excuse me?” Delphine whispered back, not wanting to cause a scene in front of the other five or six students, but by now it was already too late.  All the eyes that had left her for a minute had resumed their place.

“Oh my God, I knew it! All the French are sluts, my mother told me to watch out for your kind.” Caroline’s words spat venom in Delphine’s face.

“I, I don’t seem to follow you.” The expression of utter confusion that was plastered across Delphine’s face swayed the valley girl to explain.

“Ryan. You slept with Ryan, _my ex_ , Ryan.” The rage in voice had turned to that of spite and bitterness as she pouted.

“No! No.  I did not!” This was news to Delphine and where ever this news came from was going to be shut down. “Who told you that?” She asked, trying not to slip into her native language through her rage.

“Uh Ryan, duh!” That was it.  How could not have known he would have been behind it, what a slimeball!

“It is not true, he is lying.” A lack of American vocabulary limited Delphine in her choice of words to describe the idiotic story that douche made up.

“Caroline, do you mind takin’ a seat there love? Everyone’s tryin’ to work.” Professor Barr was on supervision duty in the lab that day and had found her work cut out for her when she entered the room to find the two ladies arguing.

Reluctantly, Caroline took her seat on the far side of the room beside another brown-haired L.A born girl.

“Delphine, a word please.” Barr nodded to a smaller room off the main laboratory.

“Yes?” Burning hatred ran through Delphine’s veins as she stood face to face with the woman who was sleeping with her, wait. Her what? What is Cosima to her?

Did she really have to ask herself at this point? She knows what Cosima is to her. Cosima is fresh, new, exciting.  Everything Delphine didn’t realize she needed until those dreadlocks crashed into her view a few weeks back.

“If you don’ mind, can you try to leave your personal life outside the lab.” Barr was pressing buttons.  This woman may seem innocent and the accent could fool anyone but she noticed the Cormier girl a lot more than anyone thought she did.  Delphine may have thought she was invisible that day in the hallway but Barr had caught sight of her starring as she lunched with Cosima.  Barr was an expert in body language, facial expression and everything that she had seen from observing Delphine’s behaviour towards Cosima told her that the ‘thing’ that Cosima ‘was in’ had something to do with this European student.

Delphine was just as observant as the Professor however.  She knew Barr had figured out there was something going on between herself and Cosima and clearly by the tone of voice she was taking now, she wasn’t taking competition so well.

“I will try my best,” Barr seemed to have won this time, “But it is a lot harder keeping the police out of the lab if you are illegally perusing those who inhabit it.” Until Delphine drew the guns.  This was a war and it was one both ladies were ready to participate in.

 

“You sure you don’t wanna come?” Scott had been lingering around Cosima’s apartment for about two hours trying to get a decent conversation out of her but it was to no avail.

“Nah, it’s cool.” She had been sitting in the same position, looking at the same webpage for the entire time she had a visitor and claimed she was researching something important whilst trying to convince him to leave her in peace.

“Look, if you’re bummed, you’re not gonna-“

“Scott, I’m fine! I’m just, like, trying to concentrate and you’re World of Warcraft meeting will just bum me out even more than you already think I am.” She cracked. Cosima’s hands flew around in front of her showing her frustration at the constant voice of her best friend.

“Alright.”  Scott finally gave up; if she didn’t give into him after this length of time then she wasn’t going to anytime soon.

After he had left, Cosima finally moved herself.  Not in the way Scott had hoped but rather in the way she needed to.

Papers flew off her mahogany table as she blew up. 

“Fucking,” One cup mashed, “Ryan,” And another, “The” There went her grandma’s graduation gift, “Asshole.” And finally her laptop got it as she slammed down the lid.

Leaning both hands on the desk she had just furiously cleared and standing among a pile of debris, she attempted to cool her head down before it physically burst into flames.

Knock, knock.

“Jesus Christ Scott, I’m not going!” The temper started to spark again.

“Bad time?”

Cosima opened the door, not bothering to clean her mess up before inviting the Southern Irish woman into her apartment.

“Stress kills, you know.” The Irish drawl seemed to have a calming effect on the American girl.

“Yeah? Then I should probably order a coffin.” Cosima slumped down on her couch, losing all sense of hosting skills.

“I know this probably isn’t the right time to bring this up, but I needed to ask you somethin’.” Barr seated herself on the edge of an armchair facing her student.  Cosima had drained herself of energy and managed to raise an eyebrow instead of replying ‘yes?’. “It’s about Delphine Cormier. You’re mates, right?”

Delphine Cormier.

Delphine Cormier.

Delphine Cormier.

Did anyone else want to mention her name or was everyone fucking done with spitting those two words from their mouths?

“No.” Cosima sat herself up, waiting for the rest of this question to unfold and prepared to brush it under the carpet as soon as it did.

“Is she an ex?” Barr knew Delphine hadn’t even gotten as far as being a ‘W’ never mind an ‘X’ but she knew what her game plan was going to be and this is how she was going to carry it out.

“No way, man. Why?” Cosima thought it was pretty early on in any type of ‘ship’ that her and her teacher were having to be asking these type of questions.

“It’s just, earlier an argument happened in the lab an’ you where brought up when I was trying to cool Delphine off.  She just seemed a little edgy when I mentioned your name.”

Cosima couldn’t help but scoff and as she did so, she diverted her eyes to another point in the room.  In this quick little moment, Barr couldn’t help but sneak a smirk of victory.  The façade returned just as quickly as it left when Cosima resumed her eye contact with the woman.

“We have history; she was a major dick in high school.” Cosima was telling the truth, she just wasn’t telling the whole truth.  Leaving out the parts after high-school seemed appropriate due to the woman she was talking to.  A woman Cosima had no interest in yet who seemed to have interest in her and after breaking a few hearts at summer camp, Cosima had learnt her lesson when it came to minding women’s feelings. “What do you mean ‘edgy’ though?” The question blurted out, Cosima was simply curious.

“I dunno,” Barr played on the last few syllables before spitting out the rest of what she came to sink into Cosima’s head, “She knew about our drink and by the looks of it, wasn’t too happy. Kinda stalkery if you ask me.” Barr shoved a mocking laugh out into the air but didn’t get the reaction she wanted.  Cosima seemed dazed and unaffected by her comments.

“She was jealous?” Cosima muttered the words, more to herself rather than Barr but the professor was prone to hearing things she wasn’t supposed to, being a teacher by profession it was something she was used to.

“Well, I wouldn’ say jea-“

“Fucking _jealous_ , after what she done!  Man, she is deluded.” Cosima paid no attention to the woman on her armchair who was now desperately trying to take back what she said and replace it with something else to cause anything but this reaction from Cosima. “Hey, look I’m sorry to be rude but I think you should leave.  I’m not feeling the best.” ‘Fuck!’ Barr thought, her game plan back fired completely.

 

“I am nice when you get to know me, huh?” Ryan almost shit his pants when he heard the harsh, raging French accent trailing up the corridor behind him. 

“Delphine.” He just had time to turn around to face her before she shoved both hands at his chest causing him to stumble back a couple of feet, “Woah! What the hell what that for?”

“You know why! You told people I slept with you?!” Delphine was furious, if her golden locks could mimic a mood ring, then they would be as red as the one’s that flowed off the head of her other enemy.

“I didn’t, I mean-“

“Do not try to lie to me! You may have lied to everyone else but you will tell the truth, do you hear me!” Ryan didn’t get a word in edge-wise as Delphine’s English slowly turned to vicious phrases of the French language.  Delphine needed to describe the anger she was feeling and she would do it in her home tongue, even if Ryan didn’t understand it, she needed to say it, to feel it.

“I was drunk! I didn’t know what I was saying, I’m sorry man!” His whole body was shaking, just like the coward he was.

“Well you best stay sober and fix this.” As if Satan had entered her body, Delphine cursed Ryan with that sentence in the most un-human tone that the boy had ever heard.

 

The walk back to her apartment was much quicker than usual, most likely because Delphine had never wanted to be alone so much in her entire stay at the University.  Her long legs carried her closer to home with each step but they also bumped out a tear every time her foot hit the ground. By the time she had the keys in the lock of her door, her face was flooding with water.

The minute she stepped over her threshold, she saw a brown-haired girl sat on her cream and gold chair.

“Cosima?” She whispered in disbelief.

Cosima had everything memorized that she wanted to say, she used the time she spent trying to get into this place to figure it out exactly.  Bitch was included in her speech at least nine times and ‘French dick’ was also brought up every so often. But now, seeing her target wiping her eyes in obvious embarrassment, she was taken back. 

“Hey.” The threatening tone of voice she was so psyched up to use had soothed into one of a comforting whisper.  That damn fucking hold was back again and Cosima’s stomach had knotted into the same tight gripping feeling that she got any time the ‘French dick’ would catch her eyes in the hallways of high-school.

“How did you get in, I mean what are you doing here?” Delphine was flustered, when she thought of herself coming face-to-face with Cosima, she imagined it much differently than this.

She pictured herself whole-headed and well dressed, not standing in a home-made cardigan her mother made for her and a face stained with her own tears.

Cosima also pictured this meeting very differently.  She imagined herself waiting for Delphine to come home after another slutty night out with another asshole.  She imagined herself drilling all the insults she could think of into the mind of the girl who drilled lust into Cosima’s core.  She imagined Delphine feeling the same things that Cosima had felt since she was fifteen.  But she never imagined this.

She never imagined Delphine Cormier standing in front of her looking like a lost puppy, looking so vulnerable and insecure, looking so, _helpless._

But she fought back against her empathetic personality and racked her brain for the opening lines of her speech.  She opened her mouth to let the words roll out but the only thing that broke the silence was, well nothing, the silence remained. Her vocal chords stood still.

Cosima couldn’t do it.

She couldn’t break the broken girl in front of her down anymore.

Shit, she could! The imaginary devil that is so commonly used in television decided to make it’s grand appearance on her shoulder and took grip of one of her dreadlocks pulling her ear down to his lips.

“Think of what she has done, is doing to you!” He convinced her.

The whole time this figurative conversation was taking place, Delphine stood fidgeting with the sleeve of her jacket as she waited for a response.

“Fuck,” Cosima muttered, and then she knew how she was going to do this.

She turned 180 degrees and faced the wall.  That way she couldn’t see what her words where doing, but she knew she was saying what she needed to say.

“I don’t get your game Delphine.  You’re a mind fuck, you know that? Like, you can’t just,” Delphine could see her hands talking even if she couldn’t see her face, “just play with people like this.  It’s cruel and it’s immature.  If you didn’t want to kiss me that night, fine, that’s cool but you can’t just go cold-turkey after _you_ came onto me.”

Cosima couldn’t face the wall anymore; she had to see her face.  Delphine’s reaction was one she decided in that moment she wanted to keep with her forever; she wasn’t going to waste her moment of bravery. Reversing her 180 degree turn, she swung back to see that Delphine was stepping towards her and Cosima knew she was going to try and wiggle her way out of it just the way she always did.  Just the way she got away with every horrible thing she did by muttering a couple of phrases in her delicious French accent. 

As Delphine stepped closer and attempted to reach out to calm the ranting American girl, Cosima cut her off.  “No! You can’t just sleep with some guy then get all fucking green-faced with Barr for no reason-“

A delicious French accent was not the only thing about Delphine as Cosima discovered when a pair of luscious French lips shut her mouth and began to caress it.  It turned out; Delphine was not trying to speak but rather the opposite.

The hands that Cosima was using to illustrate her anger now found themselves clutched onto Delphine’s waist as she pulled the taller girl closer.  In fact, both sets of hands found themselves bordering over and back of each other’s boundaries.  Neither stopped to discuss where the lines drew.

Delphine’s mouth parted as she landscaped her way between Cosima’s lips, indulging all the sights as her tongue made its way through.

One girl’s skin found itself burning against the other.  Cosima lost complete control of herself and found herself locked down and responding to every move Delphine made.

The last move was one Cosima never wanted to happen.

Delphine broke the kiss.

“I have a very good reason to be green-faced.” She sung breathlessly, a smile emerging in sync with Cosima’s toothy grin.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Delphine flowed around the campus with a buzz that couldn't stop tingling her every nerve.  Some would even say she was glowing.  Her hair felt fluffier, her legs felt lighter, her arms felt stronger, her shoulders felt tender.  Everything was so different yet so familiar.  The blood that ran threw her viens seemed to caress itself easily around her body at a gentle pace, never too fast and never too slow, yet her heart rate was constantly over the reccomended health guide lines.

_Everything was so different yet so familiar._

As she made her way to her classroom, she passed faces that she'd seen day in, day out over the past two years of her education.  Faces she would've glanced at before resuming her eyeline to the floor.  But today, she absorbed thoses faces, she paid attention to every detail and began to wonder if these people have ever felt the emotions that she was currently feeling.

Delphine knew something was different.  She crossed paths with boys who she would see everyday, the boys who would grab their chance to check out her breasts or her ass.  She would usually shoot them a cold stare before huffing off out of sight. Today, she held her head high, flaunted what she had and even ocaisonally sung a quick "Bonjour!".

She didn't know what had caused this.  Well, she did.

But Delphine couldn't figure out what exactly it was about her new dreaded American lover that made her feel this spectacular.  Maybe it was the sense of feeling compatable with someone.  Finally being able to diverge in conversation that could last for hours upon end filled with the most amazing scientific theories being brought into questions.  Maybe it was the fact that Cosima was one of the most facinating people she had ever met in her entire life.  Maybe it was due to the combination of these things or maybe it was just the sex.

The sex, she thought.  Never before had she been intimate with a women, never had she scoped the outline of a figure that curved and flowed in the ways that a woman's body did.  Never had she felt the lips of another woman embrace her skin just as Cosima's did the night before.  It was an experience. One she intended to relive over and over again until herself or her partner becomes drained. 

As she crossed the courtyard, she stopped for a minute. 

In that moment, she felt infinate happiness.  It felt as though nothing could ever bring her down from this high.  She had expierenced the effects of Scott's pot but this was totally new.  This was Cosima.  This was a connection.  A connection with herself, with the earth, with the universe.

All the small distractions of school and homesickness drifted away with the passing breeze.  Things felt just right.

That was until she realised she was fifteen minutes late for her class.

 

"So does that mean your dating?" Scott couldn't help himself but ask the obvious questions.  He still had his doubts about Delphine, even after his revelations of her metamorphisis from her high school days, he still remembered the torment her friendship group used to inflict on 'Scabby Scotty'.

It was never Delphine, always Cooper James or Lucia's boyfriend Andrew Cooney.

Football jerks would constantly remind him of his teenage skin, remarking on his lack of good looks and athletic ability.

"I don't know man!" Cosima's reply burst his rememberance bubble.  She hadn't sat down since Scott called into visit her.  She hadn't even excepted his offer of mary-jane.  She was on a high of her own, he supposed.

"Didn't you ask?" Scott had never really been one to experiement with relationships but Cosima's lack of interest of labels confused him.  Wasn't she as curious as him?

"I didn't really get the chance." Cosima finally took her place on the armchair, falling back on it and letting her legs dangle over the edge of it, a smug smile living happily on her lips.

Scott didn't have to ask why she didn't get the chance, rather they exchanged a knowing look before bursting out into a fit of laughter.

 

Even the two hour long class didn't dampen Delphine's mood. She burned as bright as she did going into the class as she did when she left it.

"Delphine.  Can I borrow a minute of your time?" A screeching Irish accent that would usually have blew her flame out simply made it shine brighter.  Delphine had won, why should this bitch ruin her high?

"Of course, how can I help you?" Delphine was killing her with kindness. 

Barr had noticed the flare in Delphine and in that moment she knew.  She regonised that smile from her own experience of new love.  What Barr didn't know was who could have caused Delphine to parade the halls like she was part of her own festivial, she did have a good idea though.

"You're familar with the place, right?" Barr began to unfold her plan.  One she was sure to break the french lady from her desired woman.

"Yes?"

"Brilliant, there's a lad that's just came in.  He's from your home town, I'm sure he'd like a friendly face to show him around."

Confussion filled Delphine to the brim. Her home town was a big pond and she was a little fish, she was sure that whoever it was that was searching for a friendly face, surely won't know hers.

"Cooper James," Barr smiled, knowing exactly who the boy was to Delphine from a little digging she had took upon herself. "The University just accepted his scholarship.  He's waiting at the reception for you." 

There's a lot of things Barr is, one of those is sly.  No one will ever know how she got that scholarship passed but one thing we do know is that it involved a lot of charm and an old man who was sick of pushing papers and looking to push something else.

 

"Hey Ryan," Cosima spat as she passed the boy on the corridor, "Had sex with more of your imagination lately?" A cruel smile slid across the lips as she toyed with him.

"Fuck off Cosima." Over the past week or so, all Ryan had been getting was abuse.  Abuse he knew he deserved but still, he was sick of it and couldn't help but fight back now and again.

"Or what? You'll fake fuck me?" Her mood was too bright not to take the oppertunites to throw hits at him.  He simply shrugged her off before heading off to his class, "Hey, speaking of fake fucking, have you seen Delphine."

"She's at the reception checking the new guy in." He stopped to give her the information in hopes that it would win her around.

"What new guy?" And why would Delphine be checking him in, isn't that the welcome commiteys job? Cosima had a feeling Ryan was playing games.

"I don't know, Copper or Cooper or something." With a fling of a hang to dismiss her, he stalked off once more.

Cooper.

Cooper?

It couldn't be.

No way could it be, right?

 

"What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too, beautiful." The blonde, shaggy haired boy turned to see his old flame huffing towards him.  He knew she was huffing from the pouty lips and eyes.  This was a look he was used to, everytime she caught him cheating she'd shoot him this look.  It wasn't one of hurt, which surprized him, more one of anger and embarressment.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Delphine repeated, shoving his shoulder towards a corridor that lead to the main enterance.  It was if she was throwing him out of a building that wasn't even hers.

"Hey!" Cooper threw his hands up in defence, he'd just come out here to have a good time and was feeling pretty attacked right now, "I got a scholarship!"

"From who?! When did you apply?!" The french lady couldn't help but scream at him.  The last time they spoke was at the anual end of year senior leavers party that was held on the beach close to their high school.

 

It was a rough night and the waves crashed up onto the shore.  No one seemed to mind the deathly cold wind that shattered over their skins, everyone was too intoxicated or high to notice or they'd been dancing so long that their body heat defeated the linging cold air.

Delphine wasn't one for these parties but the bitches forced her to come along and 'have one last high school drink'.  She didn't plan on having that drink, what she did plan on doing was showing her face, saying a few goodbyes and heading home to pack.

Leaving this town was all she could remember wanting from the minute she set foot in it.  American high school killed her.  High school in general isn't a pleasent experience but top that with a lot of drama and a bunch of girls who were too dumb to even pronounce their middle names, let's say things couldn't have been worse.

But yet, they where.

Cooper James always made things worse.

A beach party including Cooper James was a beach party that included fighting.

That night was no different, no sooner had Delphine arrived had Cooper started a fight.  It was with another football player who had been checking out Lucia.  Delphine knew Cooper and her 'friend' had been spending some quality time together in the janitors room during school but not once did she bring it up.  Until this night, her last night.

She knew that outting Cooper's little affair would stop the fight and the football player would be saved from a broken nose or at least a black eye.

After a little time considering what she was going to say, Delphine marched her way in between the boys.

"If you really have a problem with him flirting with Lucia, you should have her instead!" It was hard to sound hurt, because in total honesty, she wasn't. "Because you no longer have me."  With that, she puffed out her chest proudly and in minutes she was in her car driving home.

That ride home was the happiest she had felt in a long time.  Listening to some familiar country music, she couldn't wipe the beam of her face and the thoughts of University from her head.

 

But now here she is, standing in front of the asshole she never wanted to see again in her life.

"I didn't apply! I got a letter saying my mom had sent a form in and it was accepted!" Cooper was trying his best to calm his ex-lover down but it was to no avail. 

Delphine fired question after question, searching for some sort of answer that would give her a clue as to how Barr managed to find her high-school boyfriend and bring him all the way out to _this_ university.  Nothing he replied gave her the answers she wanted.  Barr had left no evidence of her extremely unprofessional behaviour.

"Look, I know your confused but I'm here! Can't we just forget high school D, maybe we can work this time?" Cooper James hadn't changed a bit.

"No, no no no." Delphine pased in front of him, this was the worst situation she could have imagined.  She had found something real, something new but something so amazing and here was the thing that was going to destroy it all. 

As much as she wanted to scream to the world about Cosima, she knew she couldn't.  Something inside of her just couldn't.

The boy in front of her was the person she wanted to scream at the most about how she had finally found someone who she felt honest to God feelings for but the boy in front of her wast the person who closed it off.  Not due to feelings for him, but because of the feelings he brought back for her.

She had meant what she said to Cosima the night in Scott's pot room.  Back in high school, Delphine found the little nerd so indearing but with the judgement of her friends and this jerk, she was presurred into a role she never wanted.

Even now, as a grown women, she couldn't surpass the judgement.

Delphine stopped pasing in the spot and turned to inspect Cooper.

_Everything was so different yet so familiar._

"So what you're telling me is Cooper James just magically appeared here like he's Harry fucking Potter and you're okay with that?" Cosima couldn't help but yell, she was frantic.  No way in hell was she going back to who she was.  No fucking way.

"I am not okay with it!" Delphine tried to fight back but she knew Cosima had a right to be angry.  After what she just asked of her.

"Well you seem okay!" Cosima's heart was breaking.  She thought this was it.  She thought this was her fairy tale that she's never believed in.  The one where she's reunited with her teenage crush and they live happily ever after.

Yet, here she is, standing in her living room pleading with her to keep things secret.

"Just for a while, Cosima." Delphine honestly didn't know what she was doing.  She knew this was going to ruin things but her mouth kept blurting out 'please, please, please.'  Her mind didn't fully comprehend why she was so desperate to hide her relationship from Cooper James of all people but one thing her mind did know was that she had some sort of reason to do so.

"This is bullshit Delphine." Cosima gave up, she didn't know what else to shout.  Taking a seat on her armchair, she let her hands run over her face in fustration.  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"Mon cherie, please." Delphine rushed to try and grab some part of Cosima, any part that would understand her fears and her desperation.

Cosima brushed her off and Delphine took her place back beside the book covered table.

"Bullshit." Cosima repeated, defeated.

"I, I don't know how to explain-"

"Get out." She may be defeated but she was not going to sit here and let Delphine embarress her.  She was not going to sit here and become a secret. "Get out!" She screamed, using the last ounce of enegry she had left. 

Delphine could feel the tears welling in her eyes, what had she done? Once again, she had messed everything up.  Deciding not to start a pity party, she left imediaetly as Cosima gave the orders.

With each step to her own apartment, she felt like she was taking a step back in time.  She could feel herself nearing the doors of the dreaded high school she always hated.

_Everything was so different yet so familiar._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven.

 

Somehow, in the short number of hours in a week, Cooper James had spread around the University like wildfire.  Girls couldn't get his name out of there mouth, rather the spread it around their lips and hoped that he would come and lick it off. 

Even the boys where fond of him.  Back in high school, guys despised his charm and good looks but here it was quite the opposite.  He became almost a God.  The guys would idolize him and hope that he would lend them some of his master class advice on roping in the ladies and keeping them long enough to make the kill.

Cosima couldn't deal with it.

Any time she left her room, she heard his name whispered around the hall ways.  It was if a celebrity had came to visit their humble education center.  She didn't know how he had done it.  How he had won the hearts of a small population.  But he had, and that was the problem.

Every day reminded her of the steel stool she sat on in AP biology with the cheerleaders giggling behind her constantly gussing themselves up in case the stud of the school happened to make an enterance to class.  There was Cooper James news daily, it never seemed to end. 

One thing Cosima didn't understand was how the hell he got into University.  That's the thing, that enterance the girls hoped for never came.  Cooper never came to class, never did the work and she was pretty sure he had never passed an exam in his life.  So how on earth did he find his way into one of the top Universities in the US?   She had heard the rumours of his outstanding sportsmanship finding him his way to a scholarship but she called bullshit on that one.  Why would they give a scholarship so late into the term? It just didn't add up.  Something had to be going on behind the scenes.

Each night that week she had a different theory on Cooper's magical appearence.  Her first one was finacial based.  The James family was extremely wealthy, they owned bars and clubs around different cities in the world.  Cooper loved the play the poor boy however.  Studying in a public high school rather than the top-class tutors his older sibblings were educated by.  Maybe he wanted to come to another public education facility and refine his acting skills.  The girls ate it up, they loved it.  They fell head over heels for his little humility act.  It made Cosima sick.

Her second theory was a little less harsh.  She smoked some pot that night and let her mind wander onto the small possibilty that she was being paranoid and that Cooper was just trying to acomplish the same thing as everyone else under the University roof.  That theory lasted about an hour before it vanished and she resumed her crique.

The last theory was one that she thought of the first night of the week and one that she didn't stop thinking about for the rest of the week.

Cooper James had came back for Delphine.

Maybe the jerk got sick of fucking over girls and remember the beautiful french girl he had at his finger tips.  Cosima lingered on the thought that he had realized what he threw to the wall and decided to come back and scrape off what was left.  The sickening feeling in her stomach came from the whispering in her ear that told her maybe there was something to scrape off.

"Delphine isn't interested!" Scott tried to destroy her theory.  His best friend was in pieces.  He knew Cosima well enough to know that when she gets her hopes up, they're sky high and when those hopes are crushed, she crashes and burns badly.  He knew Cosima well enough to know that she rarely followed up on a crush, Delphine was a big deal for her and now that she seemed to be drifting back into the arms of a high school asshole, Cosima was ready for the A and E treatment.

Each night Scott left Cosima's apartment, he knew that this best efforts to reassure her things weren't going to go to shit were not enough.  He knew that when that door was closed she had resumed her position on the sofa, curled up in a ball and was pondering her never ending, same old theories over and over again in her head.  The worst thing was, he couldn't do anything to change it.

Scott had changed too since high school.  The acne had dissappeared and the only evidence of his teenage years was the little scars on his face from the nights he had picked his scabs a little too much, his hair was a little better styled and he'd dropped a few extra pounds but the thing that changed the most was that Scott's confedience had grew, he wasn't popular but his social skills were improving daily.

He wanted to scream at Cosima to let her know she wasn't alone with her fears of high school reviving itself and torturing them throughout their University days.  Cooper James had fucked his life up just as much as he did everyone else's that he came into contact with.  The only thing that hadn't changed about Scott was the love he had for the lonely girl he called his bestfriend.  She was more to him that a bestfriend, she was the sister he never had.  As cheesy as he knew it sounded, he loved her like family and he was not prepared to leave her behind those doors to suffer.   He wasn't Scabby Scott anymore and by God he swore Cooper James would realize it before things got worse.

 

"I can't believe you dated him, wait how long did you go out?" Girl after girl asked the same question and Delphine wanted nothing more than to shove a sock in each of their mouths. 

Cooper James showing up unexpectidly was something she never thought would happen in her life.  She didn't even spare him a thought after she left the beach that night.  He wasn't worth a thought.  He had given her a little leverage in high school due to the repuation he had but she didn't need that now.  She didn't need a little help to walk down hallways and be respected.  She had learnt that respect came from the person you are, not the person you're sleeping with. 

Merde!

Cosima hadn't spoken to her since the Monday, it was now Friday and Delphine was going crazy.  She was stuck between a hard place and a rock.  Or should she say a hard place and a cock, because that's an exact description of the person Cooper is.  A huge dick.

He called her at least four times a day, each time Delphine would jump to the phone in hopes that it was Cosima ringing to tell her she had calmed down and wanted to assess the situation.  Delphine couldn't bear to call her first, she couldn't deal with the rejection she seemed to be constantly recieving.

Nothing she did seemed to please anyone.

She tried to talk to Scott but he closed down and gave her the same repsonse everytime she asked how Cosima was doing.

"Ask her yourself." Was his dry reply.  She knew she deserved it but there was a small part of her that just wanted one person to understand why she was doing this.

She remembered her mother reading her spanish theatre literature when she was a child.  Her father loved the theatre and he had a favourite playwright.  Garca Lorca was outstanding as her father always said.  Up until now, she never understood the things that her papa tried to explain to her. 

 

"Conflict within the individual usually relates to a situation involving love, amour passionné!" His expressions where always so exaggerated when he talked of the subject, "Lorca was a homosexual you know, he needed a way to show his desire for the things he life he could never have.  You see, ma fille, love can move you in ways you will never grasp until you are in the depths of it with it's fingernails tearing at your back.  Love is one of the most powerful emotions a human being can feel but do you know the only thing that conquers love, ma belle?"

"Non papa." An eleven year old Delphine didn't follow what her father was saying.

"Peur.  It is only the one who loves that can decide who wins the battle.  Amour ou la peur."

 

Her fathers words resonated in the mind that week.  Fear or love.  She knew she had to decide. 

The fear of Cooper James's judgement taunted her for an unknown reason that lay in the back of her mind, the fear of his power that he now had over the rest of the students she surrounded herself with burned her to her core.  The fear of being outcasted and disowned followed her around with every step she took.

But the love and passion she had for Cosima, amour passionné, was something that cooled her fear until it was relit by a whisper of the boys name.  She now understood her fathers words clearly.

"Conflict within the individual usually relates to a situation involving love".  And man, was she conflicted.

 

"Good mornin' stranger, haven't seen you about in a while." It was far too early for a small talk session with her illegal almost-lover.  All Cosima wanted to do was take the short walk to the apartments off campus for a shopping trip to an old friend of hers, a friend who sold quality marajuana, the type that blew Scott's handywork out of the water.  She seriously needed something to wipe her mind. 

"Hey, Ashling." Cosima rarely used Barr's forename but she didn't have the energy to keep up formal apperances right now.

"Lookin' rough, sweetie.  Late night?"  Cosima could only see a woman who was in the dark to the inner turmoil that was happening right now but little did she know that Barr was the one who flipped the switch.

 

It was going to be difficult.  The Irish woman knew that finding a way around the system was simply impossible but it's not what you know, it's who you know.  Even though she was still in the prime of her life, she'd made some high-up friends in the University hierarchy and she'd made them fast.  Her father was key to this plan.  Eoin Barr was one of the most well known Professors who had reached the pinicle of his career so as expected, his daughter was respected where ever she found herself working.  This University was no different, a favour here and there was no problem especially if it was a well-known man's daughter that was asking.  A scholarship for a kid who seemed pretty well rounded was simple for Barr to manage.  The difficult part of the opperatation of the research she had to do before hand.  Getting a little dirt on Delphine Cormier was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, her record was squeaky clean. 

After coming up empty with the schools data base she tried the worlds data base.  Googled promised her results.  Delphine Cormier is a unique name so when she typed it into the search bar, not much came up apart from a few pages.  One of those pages held the answer to her prayers.

Delphine was photographed on the day of her senior high school prize giving.  She was standing with her family, friends and boyfriend.  Barr knew Cooper was the lover because the fourm the photo belonged to had people praising the couples names underneath it.

"Bingo." She thought aloud before roughly planning out what she intended to do.

 

Standing in front of Cosima now, she felt satisfied with her work.  It may seem pity and an awful lot of work for a fling but Barr had two reasons to go out of her way.  The first was that she was drawn to Cosima in ways she had never been drawn to anyone before.  She was one hundred percent interested.  The second reason was that she loved a little bit of a competition and winning gave her a sick thrill. 

Seeing Cosima upset made Barr feel the tinest bit guilty but she knew if she said the right things at the right time, she could make her feel ten times better as well as wiping that dirty french name from the girl's dreaded head.

"I haven't been sleeping very well, nightmares and stuff.  I just ran out to get some sleeping tablets, it's cool." Barr was the last person Cosima wanted to take her 'Delphine rage' out on, she had been so kind to her since she had joined the University.  All she wanted to do was make it back to her apartment before "How It's Made" came on and light up a joint, so this was her best line to try and shrug the professor off.  She tried a smile and a little dismissive wave to make her lie sound a little more legit.

"Well if you ever need some company to take your mind off things, you know where I am."  Barr had a reserved smile for this occassion.  The one where she knew she had finally tore down Delphine Cormier and got what she wanted. 

As the Irish women made her way down the hall way, a voice called her back.  The voice she wanted to call her back for quite a while now.  The smile had cemented itself with Cosima exactly the way she wanted it too.

 

Dephine knew what her decision was.

She had found herself so deeply engrossed in her fathers words, trying to brush the dust off each letter and make sure she seen the picture clearly. When the memory was sparkling clear, she knew what she was going to do.  She decided that she would pick love, she finalized that she would never let fear prevail.  

Ever sense she was a little girl, her life was defined by the fear she was taught.  Her mother and father embedded constant nightmares into her head, the nightmare of failure if she didn't study hard enough, the nightmare of being alone if she didn't settle down and the worst in her opinion, the nightmare of being unhappy if she didn't settle down with the right person.  When she got to highschool she let society join her parents in the job of instilling more nightmares.  Her relationship with Cooper came from her terrifying fear of being rejected, of being looked down upon, of being outcasted.  Cooper was her only way of dismissing those fears as he hooked her up with a social circle that would never make her feel those fears.

But now, as an adult, those fears were not going to control her any longer.  Practicing her speech in her head, the clicking of her boots sounded their way to Cosima's apartment.

Every step closer to the main enterance caused her to fight those fears, those nightmares a little harder.  Her stomach burned with anticipation.  Usually the thought of seeing Cosima filled her stomach with butterflies but it seemed now as though those butterflies were lighting little fires inside of her.

The moment had arrivied.  She stood facing a mahogany door that kept her from the girl she was crazy for.  The door was the line that separated fear and love, behind it was the choice she had made.  Delphine figured that knocking it was her giving into her fear and letting it control her, that knocking was her way of conforming and simply, waiting for Cosima to answer might be enough time for her to change her mind.

When she opened the door herself, she wished that she had found the balance between fear and love because there in front of her was her biggest fear, heartbreak.

Two naked figures turned to look at the intruder.  Barr's face lit up, this was exactly what she wanted.  For Delphine to see that she had won and what better way to show it than to let the French girl see it in the flesh, literally.  Cosima's face was much different, first off she was embarressed, as anyone would be in this situation, she felt like she was sixteen and her mother had just walked in on her boning someone. 

Secondly, she was angry.  What the hell gave Delphine the right to just walk into her apartment like she owned the place, she had no right to stand in her home and look at her the way she was. 

"Care for a picture love?" Barr's words were full of sarcasm. 

Delphine had no energy to fight, to be frank she barely had any energy to storm out of there the way she did.  When she finally stopped running from Cosima's apartment, she was ready to collapse.  It felt like too many times she had made that getaway and she was tired of it.  What she saw back there resonated in her mind, she couldn't wash the image off. 

When she stopped running, she found herself in front of another door.  One she decided to knock this time.

"Isn't this a surprise." Cooper couldn't have seemed more pleased when he answered.

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Every head turned that morning, not one person could keep their eyes of the pair that walked down the main corridor.  The click of leather, high-heeled boots that walked in time with a pair of the latest Nike sneakers was the only sound that broke the silence that echoed in the University.  Every guy that let Delphine Cormier fall under their radar had now picked her up and had their full attention on the blonde curls that bounced around her perfectly shaped face.  Girls could feel their hearts burning with jealousy as they let their eyes rest on the intertwined hands of Cooper James and the immunology girl.   Most people had seen it coming, high-school lovers reunited after two years, it was like a love story that most people were too sceptic to believe in. 

The power couple who where ruling the halls passed out small waves to a selected few they believed were worthy of it, a modern King and Queen you could call them.  If Cooper had it his way, they would be wearing crowns.

But this wasn't his way.

"You know what you are to do, yes?" Delphine had pulled Cooper from the prying eyes of the other students into a small, enclosed corner of the courtyard. 

This was her way.

"Yeah, I know what I'm doing D but I still don't get what's in it for me." Since their meeting in his apartment, Cooper hadn't got a word in edge-wise and he was taking this opportunity to bargain a reward for what he was going to do.

Delphine simply replied with a scoff.  This was desperation on her part; she would never have resorted to Cooper James if she could've helped it.

"Do not mess this up." She was not in the mood for his petty desires; she was a woman on a mission.

 

"Looks like I was wrong about her, like I thought she'd changed Cos, honestly." Scott knew he'd fucked up big time.  The news of the reunited lovers had spread to every corner of the university, including the ones that tried their best to block it out. 

"I don't give a shit, Scott.  It's fine man." Cosima's carefree laughter that attempted to brush off the anger that was surging threw her body didn't fool Scott.  It never did.

Cosima knew in her bones that this was going to happen.  The minute Ryan told her about Cooper, it was inevitable that Delphine was going to throw her to the gutter, forget about her college lesbian fling and run back into the toned arms of the quarterback that had dug his way out from the past.  Before Delphine had made her grand entrance the other day, every kiss that Barr planted on her body pushed Cosima to think that maybe she was wrong for doing this, maybe she was over-reacting, maybe she'd got things all wrong and hadn't given Delphine a chance to properly explain herself.  Cosima knew that this was new for the French girl but she refused to be a secret, since she had came out herself that was something that she vowed never to do again. 

But now, she was glad that she made the decision to invite Barr back for wine.  If she hadn't, she would have had the unpleasant experience of having Delphine barge in on her having a pity party only to be given the "It's not you, it's me." talk.  Never did it cross her mind that Delphine wasn't rushing into her apartment to call it off with her but rather confess her feelings for the little science geek.

"Cosima, you don't have to do this." Scott didn't know what to say, he never really did when it came to things like this.  He was a smart guy but girl problems didn't fall under his speciality.

"Do what?" He had hit a nerve, she didn't want his sympathy.

"You know what!" Cosima shot him a 'I'm warning you' look before she returned to filling another class of rosé wine. "Whatever, whatever.  Are you still coming tonight?"

Shit! Cosima had forgotten all about the Semi-Formal dance.  She'd promised Scott at the start of the year that she would go with him but right now, she wished she'd given him a 'maybe' instead of a 'yes'.  She knew that Delphine and her new boy toy where bound to make an entrance and one thing she couldn’t bare to see was history repeating itself.  Even in high school whenever she didn’t have the right to be jealous, it broke her heart to see Delphine cooing over the blonde boy she ‘loved’.

"Yeah, yeah.  Of course.  Pick me up at like, eight."  Cosima knew that if she didn't go, Scott wouldn't go and she wasn't going to let Delphine fucking Cormier ruin her best friends night as well as her own.

"Eight?  Okay, I'll be here at eight thirty so you don't have to apologise for being late, again."  Scott let out a little light-hearted smile to his buddy.

Cosima tried her best to return his smile whilst pushing him playfully out the door, "Later Scott."

As soon as she closed it, her legs bucked beneath her and she sunk back into that black pit of sadness she had been so accustomed to the past few days.

 

“Delphine, could you spare a couple of minutes.” Barr was waiting patiently the whole class to grab the French girl before she could rush out at the end.  As much as she was pleased with herself, Barr needed to cover her tracks.

Delphine, however, was happy enough to hear what her professor had to say.

“Yes?” Her French accent masked the hatred she held for the women with a friendly tone.

“About the other night love, if you could keep what you seen to yourself.  Cosima and I are keeping our relationship under wraps for the minute.” Barr tried her best to get as many digs in as possible without aggravating the girl enough for her to tout.

“Of course.” Relationship? Delphine wanted to scoff as soon as she heard it but she managed to keep herself poised.  She had already set her plan in action and she wasn’t about to mess it up by letting her emotions get in the way, for now anyway.

“Thanks sweetheart.” With that settled, Barr smiled to herself before exiting the room.

Delphine let her eyes follow the Irish woman out of the room before she had to bite her fist so as a scream didn’t burst from her lungs.

Bitch!

Everything about that woman got Delphine’s blood boiling.  She could feel the coursing liquid burning her skin from within.  But she knew that if things went accordingly, Barr would be the least of her problems.

All she had to do now was think of a way she was going to make things up to Cosima.

Her plan had its flaws, if it went right Cosima wasn’t going to forgive her easily but that was a chance she was willing to take.

 

“Sorry, sorry!”

“You said eight Cosima!” Scott wasn’t too happy to find a half dressed Cosima lurking about her apartment searching for the right heels to wear with her dress.  He’d came at exactly half eight as he had presumed the extra half an hour would be enough time for her to sort herself out but clearly he was wrong.

“I know, I know! I’ll be like, two seconds, I promise.”  After Scott left, she had managed to find her way to her king sized bed and starfish herself out.  Deciding not to let her brain run wild with thoughts, she lulled herself to sleep some how and when she woke, it was seven thirty.

“Come on man, the car’s running.” Finally Cosima found a sleek black pair of heels that complimented her burgundy dress she got for Christmas the year before.  It was one of those dresses that made her look curvy in all the right places but it was also the most comfortable things she owned.  Cosima figured it was perfect for an event like the Semi-Formal dance.

“See. Told you I’d be two seconds.” Pleased with her timing, she smiled at her best friend who stood tapping his foot at her apartment door.  He didn’t scrub up too bad. 

The tux he wore made him seem buff rather than bulky and it looked like he’d taken the time to style his usual flat hair into a little quiff.  Cosima couldn’t help but smile at the dork and the way he kept finding himself in her mirror and attempting the keep one little strand that fell flat on his forehead in line with the rest of his hair.

Before they left, Cosima babied him a little.  She fixed his collar as he must have been to busy on his gelled hair to tuck it down around the back of his neck.

“Come on!” He droned, slapping her hands away.  One thing he hated was being late but having a partner in crime called Cosima usually meant that he was never on time. 

“Calm down, man.” She chuckled before pushing him out and turning to lock the door. “What’s the rush? We’ve got all the time in the world.”

“Even if you had all the time in the world, you’d still be late.”

“Wow, harsh dude.”  A flustered Scott was all she needed to cheer herself up, it was hilarious watching him check the watch his grandma sent him for his birthday every five seconds.

Once they reached the car, Scott practically shoved Cosima into the passenger seat before he ran around and started his little beetle up.

“I could’ve drove us there you know.” Cosima didn’t mind driving them to the dance; in fact she probably would have preferred it.  She knew that she wasn’t going to drink; if she did she was afraid that Cooper would leave the place with a black eye.

“We wouldn’t get there if you drove.” Cosima gave him a playful punch before leaving him to concentrate on the road, something she wasn’t prone to doing very often.

 

“Where’s the Mr?” Paula, a girl from Delphine’s micro-biology class had found Delphine amongst the crowd of a couple of hundred or so.  Paula was nice, a little nosey but nice.  Until Delphine had came out holding hands with the star boy of the University, the girl never really paid attention to her but now it was as if she was begging to be friends.

“Oh, he is running a little late.”  Delphine was a terrible liar but she couldn’t afford to give anything away to anyone.  All day she felt herself shaking in anticipation of what she was attempting to do.  At one point she even considered backing out but Cooper wouldn’t answer his phone and she had a good idea as to why he was too busy not to.

If even Cooper was invested in her plan, she decided that she best pull herself together and follow through.

Her brown eyes kept making their way to the main entrance searching for Cosima, that’s if she even came. 

When the dreaded girl did make an entrance, for the first time in a week people took their eyes off Delphine and instead let themselves fall under the spell of Cosima Niehaus.  Standing with Scott, she smiled at some of the people she knew. 

Delphine’s mouth wouldn’t seem to close, she had never seen Cosima look so, so radiant. 

Whatever she expected, it certainly wasn’t this.

Delphine had anticipated seeing a broken young girl, fresh from heartbreak standing in a room of people who were too busy to notice the red puffs under her eyes but she defiantly did not see this coming.  A fully blossomed woman who stood confident in her heels whilst handing out “hello’s” to those who greeted her.

Maybe she over-estimated their relationship Delphine thought. 

 

“This is lame man.” Cosima had managed to pull Scott to a drinks table to pour herself a beverage.

“It’s not that bad!” Scott knew that Cosima wasn’t in the best of forms tonight.  He was glad that this event came at the time it did, he feared that if she was alone to long with her thoughts she would drive herself mad.  All he wanted was for her to spend a night with some people she knew and have a good time.  He just wanted her to forget Delphine even just for one night.

“They’re playing ninety’s slow jams dude, if Rachel were here-“ Cosima was just about to reminisce about her half-sister until a familiar voice floated into her ear drums.

“Hey.” Delphine sounded pleased to see her.  Was she stupid or just plain rude?  Cosima knew that Delphine was smart but yet she couldn’t get it into her head that popping up for a casual chat a few days after dumping a girl was a bad idea.

“I forgot my purse in the car; I’ll be back in a second.”  Okay so maybe it was a little childish to ignore her like that but Cosima thought it was better to ignore her than to punch her.

“So we are not speaking now, no?” Delphine followed after her, she needed to close her mission as soon as possible and this was the only way to do so.

“Delphine, can you like, leave?” Cosima didn’t even want to waste the energy of stopping to turn around to face the girl, instead she kept moving as fast as she could in her awkward footwear.  One thing she didn’t want to do was cause a scene and she knew in her heart that if she took one look at that weirdly perfect face, a scene is exactly what would happen.

“You are being a child Cosima, stop.”  Delphine knew she’d gone too far by grabbing the girl’s arm.  As soon as their skin touched she felt Cosima tense up.  It was like an electric shock for both of them.  But what came next was something Cosima never thought she would do in her life.  She completely lost her temper.  A forceful slap mounted Delphine’s cheek in one quick turn of her heel and at that moment the room went silent and all the two girls could do was look at each other.

“You two, out! Now!” One of the chaperones had seen it happen and had no other choice but to escort them from the building and there was only one place they could go. 

The Dean’s office.

It was against school policy to inflict violence on any other student and Cosima had broken the rule.  Punishment was in order.

 

“What were you thinking? Both of you are grown women and you just behaved like my four year old twins!” The woman who lead the way to the office didn’t take a breath between her lectures of behaviour.  Cosima had seen her along the Art’s corridor.  The professor was known for her erratic teaching techniques but was famous for her crazy white hair and eyebrows.  No one really knew if she was albino, no one dared to ask.

“I-“ Cosima tried to explain herself but she knew there was no point.  She had no idea what had taken over her! Something inside just lit up and every nerve in her body followed it’s natural instinct.  While she followed the professor with Delphine trailing behind them, she didn’t know how she felt.  It was a bit harsh to hit her like that but it was harsh to dump someone as quickly and as brutally as Delphine did. 

They reached the office in less than five minutes.

They were expected to sit inside until the Dean arrived.  The head man in charge never really attended formal events such as the dance but now that there had been an issue, he had to come to the University to sort it out.  The University of Minnesota didn’t really comprehend the phrase “wait until morning.”

The white-haired professor was about to pull the keys to unlock the office door from her pocked when she realized it was already cracked open slightly and that a dim light shone through the  tempered obscure glass.

When she dared push the door open wide, what she found in her view was enough to turn her white hair pink to match her face.

There in front of the three was Cooper James, half naked with an Irish professor fumbling around for a shirt to cover her exposed body.

Delphine’s plan had miraculously come together.

 

“So you want me to sleep with the Irish one?” Cooper didn’t fully understand what his ex-girlfriend was asking him.

“She is corrupt! Everyone knows that she has been illegally involved with students for years and I need your help to, to bring justice!” Crazy, I’m crazy! She thought.  As she practically ran from Cosima’s apartment this idea formed in her brain and landed her outside Cooper’s house.  She didn’t know how she was going to pull it off but she knew it had to be done.  If Barr wanted to play dirty then she would play dirty just as well.

When she was a little girl, her mother told her about a friend she used to have.  Delphine used to ask why this friend constantly got married and her mother began to tell her of an addiction called Abandolism.  It was too complex for a thirteen year old Delphine to understand but just like with her father’s tales, the older she got, the more she understood.  Her parents weren’t one to shy away from telling information like this to their children.  She assumed that Barr suffered from this addiction and with that, she played on the idea of Cooper getting involved. 

Finally, after hours of planning, Cooper and Delphine came up with the idea of the Semi-Formal dance and how Cooper was going to lure Barr to the Dean’s office, he would convince her that no one would be going anywhere near that part of the University since the Dean wouldn’t be in school and then he would use his charm to get into her pants.  All Delphine had to do was find a way to rattle Cosima up enough to get them both in trouble.

 

“So what’s going to happen to Cooper?” Cosima asked another chaperone as Mrs. Crazy had to be taken home, she was in a major form of shell shock.

“Well, he’ll be given some counselling I suppose.” Counselling, ha! As if Cooper needed counselling because he got into bed with someone, it’ll be Barr who needs to counselling!

“Cosima.” A gentle voice emerged from the pavement behind the American girl and she knew all too well who it belonged too.

“Hey.” After a long night, Cosima decided it was time to give Delphine a chance to explain herself but boy, did she explain herself.

They moved themselves to a remote little area off campus where Delphine sat Cosima down and told her everything from start to finish.  Of course, arguing happened.  A lot of arguing to be exact.  Cosima just couldn’t see why Delphine would go to so much trouble to get Barr fired. 

“That’s selfish Delphine, man!” Hands flew everywhere and Cosima didn’t sit for long, she paced in front of the blonde lady as she tried to rattle her brain for some explanation.

“Well then I am selfish!” With all the courage she had left, Delphine picked herself up off the bench and grabbed Cosima by her shoulders. “If wanting you is selfish, if, if loving you is selfish then I am selfish.”  It was as if Cosima had just slapped her again because for a few moments they simply looked between one another. 

“Je t’aime.” Delphine finally whispered before reaching up and running her thumb across Cosima’s smooth cheek.  She had been bursting to say it for weeks and now that it was finally out she wanted to burst into tears of joy, or of sadness. 

She didn’t really know how she felt until she found Cosima’s lips caressing her own.  She knew then that all the pain, all the hurt and all the hatred that she had went through was worth it because in that moment, the infinite happiness she felt came flooding back into her body as she took a handful of dreaded hair and fell into the kiss.

Never in her life did she think her father could be wrong, but right then she knew he was wrong to say fear conquers love.

Right then she knew that love _always_ conquers fear.


End file.
